User talk:Sparks2011


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Request for sources on Jon Ashworth
Hi. I wonder if I could ask you to find sources for some of the statements you added to the biography of Jon Ashworth MP? In particular:


 * Ashworth's being "seconded to Scottish Labour Party to work on the Scottish Parliament election campaign". (There are sources saying the campaign was led by Gordon Brown so I would have thought the link is not a problem even if not explicitly mentioned.)
 * The 'Tory Toff' costume worn by a party member during a campaign stunt in the Crewe and Nantwich byelection seems to be a bit of a problem. There is a good contemporary source for the fact that Ashworth was based in Crewe for the campaign, although the only link to the campaign stunt was in a diary column piece recently - which I have to admit is not the best source, and had it not connected with the previous well-sourced information I would have been very wary of including it at all. But is there a source to say that this report was false? It may be better just to remove this bit and leave just the bit about being in Crewe for the campaign.
 * The Times report of Monday 27 September, just after the leadership result was declared, contains this sentence: "Another tutor [of Ed Miliband] was Stewart Wood, later Gordon Brown's foreign affairs and political adviser. Mr Wood is now a key member of Ed Milband's team along with other former members of the Brown-era No 10, David Muir, Jonathan Ashworth and Rachel Kinnock." It seems to me unlikely that Ashworth could have become a "key member" of a leadership team less than two days after it had been put together. In any case it is not good to refer to what 'some suspect'; if there is no source for any allegiance during the leadership contest then it would be better to say that Ashworth was immediately appointed to a senior position in the party under the new leadership. There may be an obvious implication but it is for the reader to decide what they think.
 * Is there a source for the union support in the selection contest? And as the nomination paper was only in the name of the Labour Party and not a Labour Party and Co-operative Party joint candidate, what is the source for identifying Jon Ashworth as a Lab/Co-op? (I could find nothing on The Co-operative Party website.)
 * The Leicester Labour Party press release implies that only one ballot was needed but I suspect it may be better to use the Labourlist entry here as the source as it says so explicitly. Blog entries are not always considered reliable as sources but this would, I think, be taken as one of the circumstances were it is allowed.

It would be good to hear your thoughts as it all goes to make a better, more accurate and better sourced, entry. Many MPs don't have them. Sam Blacketer (talk) 21:28, 1 June 2011 (UTC)