IN MANY ways, it seems that Uxbridge has never recovered from the general election.
This Is particularly true for Labour Party members who continue to have the haunted look of people who can't quite believe what is happening to them.
For them, this bewilderment does not stem from Labour winning the election (this is old news) but from the death of the Uxbridge Tory MP a week after the election, and the subsequent deselection of the popular local Labour candidate, David Williams, who came just 724 votes from taking the seat.
David Williams is not well known nationally as a figure on the left of the Labour Party because in many respects he is a truly local figure.
Council
As Deputy Leader of Hillingdon Council, he has built a reputation for dedicated advocacy on behalf of the people of the borough, and this is also a Labour council that until this year resisted making cuts land even now has not made any compulsory redundancies).
David Williams has also worked setting up Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS) as an anti-capitalist alternative for local unemployed and poorly paid workers.
None of this strikes you as particularly radical, however. Mr Williams is better known for his friendly manner than his socialist ideology.
It is particularly strange, then, that the Labour Party has decided to exclude David Williams from the by-election shortlist.
A shortlist of two outside candidates was imposed instead, from which Andrew Slaughter, leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council, has been selected.
This has split the Uxbridge Labour Party and provoked an angry response from many at the selection meeting. More than a quarter of the ballot papers were spoilt in Willlams' favour. A clear majority of the local party are deeply unhappy at the way the process has been handled.
Constituency secretary Rod Marshall commented: "David Williams received 8 out of the 16 nominations received but was excluded from the shortlist. This is completely undemocratic and is a sad indictment of the Labour Party today".
The Labour Party nationally has been unwilling to explain its decision, merely citing Mr Williams' supposed lack of TV experience as their reason. That Mr Willlams is not a gushing supporter of New Labour has been mooted unofficially.
As Labour in government embraces the free market with more gusto than the last Tory government, It is also clear that party apparatchiks are aiming to rid the party of any last vestiges of democracy.
The proposals for this year's conference are an attempt to signal an end to any input from local parties and it is therefore perhaps fitting that Uxbridge CLP has been treated this way in the run up to conference.
Gordon Brown's austerity programme can only be strengthened through an increase in the stranglehold of the Labour leadership.