In 18th century, rotten boroughs (or electorates) were controlled by the country's great families, who used this distortion of the electoral system to control the country through the House of Commons as well as the Lords.
William Pitt the Younger was 'elected' to Parliament from a rotten borough, but as prime minister he pursued a modest program of electoral reform which included abolishing 36 of these rotten boroughs.
Recently, there have been press reports of ALP pre-selections in several states.
In Queensland:
Ms Newton will benefit from a factional deal that saw the Australian Workers' Union seize control of Labor preselections in Sandgate and Nudgee in return for backing a Left candidate Peter Freeleagus in the federal electorate of Capricornia.
But senior figures in the ALP insisted the AWU will not run a candidate in Nudgee because to do so would spark outright "war" with the rival Labor Unity faction. The former failed candidate in Nudgee, Leanne Linard, is being touted to stand again.
Hospitality union United Voice is withholding support from (Senator Louise) Pratt, who is backed by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU), accusing her of enlisting right-wing union support.
Pratt is also said to be "facing a challenge from Joe Bullock, head of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) in Western Australia."
At the same time in WA:
In the past 12 months, the number of MUA members who are also Labor members has increased more than fivefold to 850, up from 150 a year ago.
This means one in four of the 3500 members of the ALP is now aligned to the MUA.
While recently in Victoria:
The safe Labor seat in Melbourne's south-west is seen as part of Senator Conroy's ''patch'' under a 2008 carve-up of seats that was designed to end factional brawling when selecting Labor candidates.
Senator Conroy is backing his own former staffer, Telstra executive Tim Watts, for the seat.
But he has been infuriated by the nomination of Kimberley Kitching, a prominent member of Senator Conroy's Labor Unity faction who is now running the Health Services Union Victoria No. 1 branch.
We seem to have grown so used to the idea that ALP pre-selections are just internecine power struggles between union officials, faction leaders and prominent MPs that it no longer prompts much concern, or even surprise.
Of course, it is so complex that only those directly involved have much hope of understanding what is happening, but it seems to all have about the same relationship to democracy as the franchise in 18th century England.
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