I joined the party in 2014. Almost immediately I was appointed to the Governance Review Working Group, which conference had voted to create to come up with changes to modernise the constitution. In 2016, a job-share and I were elected unopposed to GPEx as Management Coordinators and I stayed in post for two years, although my job-share resigned in despair at the end of the first year.
These first years in the party introduced me to identity politics for the first time, and also to a clear understanding of the weaknesses in the party’s governance and management arrangements. I decided to stand as Chair of the Executive with the aim of professionalising the party. I served for four years, stepping down in 2022.
Just one male member has complained about me in ten years, submitting four complaints from 2016 to 2020. The first was dismissed by Disciplinary Committee as vexatious. In 2019, two further complaints were made – one anonymously although its author was clear – and at a hearing held when I was chairing a GPEx meeting, Disciplinary Committee suspended me for three years. I lost my appeal against this decision. I employed a solicitor and within three months, on the advice of the party’s lawyers, GPEx declared the decision against me null and void. I was re-elected as GPEx Chair with a large majority three months later.
Explore more Exiles“In September 2020, the same member re-submitted the same complaints, with a multitude of added and un-evidenced extras. Three years and two months later (!), Disciplinary Committee heard these complaints – in a distinctly ill-disciplined way – and suspended me for four years in mid-December 2023. Since then I have been waiting for an appeal hearing to be arranged, and am not expecting to receive one – because the process is part of the punishment.”