The Laz Word...on Jake's progress

JAKE Morrison burst onto the Liverpool political scene, fuelled by nothing more than a breath of fresh air. 

Aged 17 he was selected by Wavertree ward Labour Party branch to do what seemed the impossible. He was to take on the mighty Mike Storey, a big figure in both local and national politics. Just 18 at the time of the council elections in May 2011, he beat the former Liverpool City Council leader. Talk about  David–v-Goliath, this was even bigger. 

He will have caused blood-boiling anger by
allowing the row to become public property

The day after his electoral sling, giant-slayer Jake received a congratulatory phone call from Labour Party Leader Ed Milliband. The teen was an overnight sensation, pictured with a beaming smile surrounded by Louise Ellman, Maria Eagle and Liverpool’s third female MP, Luciana Berger. 

Today, Jake must be wondering if  his political career is in tatters, wrecked by a most public spat between him and Wavertree MP Berger, whose own selection to the seat was controversial.  A shadow Government minister for Energy and Climate Change, she is destined, should Labour ever re-occupy No 10, to be a member of the Cabinet. 

A few weeks ago, Jake told Twitter followers that he had decided not to stand when his current council term of office ends in 2015. His decision stunned supporters who saw the fresh-faced bespectacled socialist as a cheerleader for Labour youth. He had put the issue of compulsory defibrillators in public places onto the Parliamentary agenda, for one, backed by a massive signature campaign.

Jake batted questions from all and sundry about the REAL reasons for his decision. Now it’s all come out in the form of an email exchange involving Jake, Luciana, Mayor Joe Anderson and Ed Milliband.

There’s been a spectacular fall out between the city’s youngest councillor and the MP, leading to an official complaint about his conduct by the latter to Mayor Joe. 

Happier Times

In response, Jake has written to Milliband complaining of Luciana’s alleged conduct towards him, accusing her of smear tactics, adding:  “Here we have in Luciana, a privately educated MP from London, who has come to Liverpool and made my life unbearable.” 

Both exchanges were published on his Facebook page but the letter to the Labour leader was later removed.

Later, a spokesman for Team Berger responded:  “Cllr Morrison’s allegations are completely untrue. We work as a team in Liverpool Wavertree. Unfortunately communication with Cllr Morrison has broken down."

Perhaps to take the heat out of a bubbling volcanic eruption, Mayor Joe has told Jake to take a month off from his busy council schedule. This will also give party bosses time to decide what, if anything, to do. 

Perhaps, if they had any sense, they’d send Jake and Luciana to Relate in the hope some counselling could bring about a harmonious reconciliation. 

If it does all end up in divorce who will end up with custody of the Labour Membership card? I’m thinking not young Jake: the only card he might see being the red one. 

He will have caused blood-boiling anger by allowing the row to become public property. Indeed the letter from Luciana talks not of what Jake has been doing, rather what he has not been doing. 

Following the 2010 general election defeat, Labour has turbo charged its use of social media, taking a leaf out of President Obama’s success with twitter, facebook etc being his weapons of mass communication. Here in Liverpool that includes enlisting Obama campaigner Arnie Graf in Wavertree. 

Words and phrases like “comprehensive agreed script”…”processes”… “training activities” abound in Luciana Berger's email. They mean business.

Jake Morrison believes certain people within his party want him out now, but he insists he is staying until his term of office expires in 2015. 

Calm down: Jake Morrison writes to Ed Milliband

What can Labour do, if reconciliation, re-education or rehabilitation don’t work? They can’t dispatch the bingo-loving councillor to Siberia.

They could expel him from the party or withdraw the party whip. That would make him a lonesome footsoldier in the council chamber, but also a loose cannon.

 

Older and possibly wiser people quickly advised Jake to keep quiet, delete his Facebook posts and sort out things the old fashioned way. 

But just as he burst onto the scene, all fresh-faced, his conduct now has all the hallmarks of an innocent abroad, speaking as he finds. 

Isn’t that still refreshing compared to a stage managed, manipulated, controlled alternative? 

 However, the move has been branded elsewhere as attention seeking.

The letter to Jake from Luciana, copied to Mayor Joe and Labour’s chief whip, Alan Dean, doesn’t show her in a particularly flattering light and played straight into the arms of her critics, including some within the Labour Party itself.  

So far it’s a draw, but as extra time is played out will it go to a political penalty shoot-out?