Labour HQ staff considering strike action

Strikes huh? Great fun for all involved no doubt, but it's not just BAA staff in the private sector that are rumbling these days, word reaches me that the committed personnel of Labour Party staff at 39 Victoria Street are also getting restless.

Why you might ask. Well, remember way back before the election in April 2009, during the selection process for the rotten borough safe seat of Erith and Thamesmead, a ballot box from the vote that was stored in a cupboard in Victoria Street was found to have ripped up ballot papers in it?

Accusations and allegations flew around at the time that some sort of dirty tricks campaign was going on in, possibly, so it was alleged, to parachute Lord (Philip) Gould's daughter Georgia into the seat.

The row intensified in September when it emerged that Labour's general secretary Ray Collins, wanted to collect DNA samples from HQ staff to uncover who had been tampering with the ballot box, using home DNA testing kits sourced from the Internet.

The staff's trade union got involved at this point it seems, and told the Labour Party top bods that they wouldn't be cooperating with voluntary private dna testing. Which is fair enough, although ironic given the official line from Labour for the last decade on DNA has been "nothing to hide, nothing to fear", but there you go.

Anyhow, that was all in the past, long forgotten you'd think, but no, it seems it may be about to rear its ugly head again. You see, it appears that the staff have now learned that after refusing to play the DNA game, the top bods in the party contacted the police and invited them to investigate the internal machinations of "ballotboxgate".

However, it's believed Inspector Knacker turned down the invite, essentially saying it wasn't a criminal matter and so was nothing to do with them. The staff, having discovered that the upper echelons were still considering them all guilty and were considering coercing them with the police after they refused to cooperate with voluntary testing are now said to be "angry" and "feel let down" by the General Secretary. The result of which is that they're considering strike action in response.

Now wouldn't that be hilariously funny? Labour Party staff striking because their employer was a rogue bastard. Actually the irony would be more delicious than a very delicious thing chocked full with extra MSG.

There's no word on when this might, or if it will happen, but whoever wins the leadership may find that their first test is not taking the fight to the Coalition over the deficit reduction plan, but instead popping along to ACAS because the party they lead have industrial relations problems.

Mind you, they'd have to be a ballot for them to be able to strike over an investigation into ballot rigging. This could actually get even funnier to watch. Pass the popcorn!