Shouting at the telly – policy-making in today’s Labour Party

Three stories, changed names, but all true:

– I hadn’t seen Mike for a while. Although not a member of the party he votes Labour. Mike takes a great interest in politics but tells me of his increasing anger with politicians, especially Labour ones, to the extent that he quite literally yells at the television. When I suggested to Mike that he could meet up with some Labour people to discuss his concerns he was uninterested. Mike sometimes delivers leaflets for Jane, his Labour councillor but doesn’t accept that he’s “political”.

– Fred recently rejoined the party. He’s a campaigning specialist – if you want well-organised canvassing, persuade Fred to do it. But he was out of the party for several years while Labour was in government. This was mainly because of Labour’s foreign policy, and I had similar concerns. But during his time away from the party he never wished to discuss the issues with me and was incredulous when I suggested that he might share his concerns with local colleagues.

– George is a party member and a GP. He has well-informed views about the NHS via his practice and various governance roles. He is very concerned about the Tories’ changes to the NHS and wishes to share his views; to that end, he recently emailed a senior Labour Party figure and did not receive a reply. He tells me that he is about to email another senior Labour Party figure and hopes for a better response.

I think it was Ian McCartney who used to say that politics was like sex – it doesn’t work unless it’s shared. Political discussion was the basis of the Labour Party; the Fabian Society, which helped to found the party, is still thriving. New political discussion groups emerge frequently and “Progress”, for example, is promoting reading and discussion groups across the country. And yet what was obvious to Labour’s founders seems to have been lost in the “refounding” process, and our policy process is drifting.

Sharing, learning and explaining all represent the Fabian ideal; the modern Party half-accepts the sharing aspect but learning and explaining are viewed with suspicion. When the Labour Party was founded few of its members had much education but political activity was the way in which people raised their horizons. Labour Party members these days are well-educated, but we live in an anti-intellectual world in which it’s much safer to talk about the X Factor or football. And yet Tories have their way of explaining the world; so must we.

Political discussion is much more than opinion gathering,  worthwhile though exercises like “Fresh Ideas” or  “the Big Conversation” may be. If we are going to, for example, tackle the proposed NHS changes then we need to bring together users and practitioners in every locality to understand what they’ll mean and develop policies for when Labour is in government. This sort of process is never easy, but dumbing down isn’t the way.

Political activity locally should include campaigning, fundraising and social events and if political discussion is missing from the mix, then ultimately campaigning doesn’t work because there isn’t an outlet for concerned individuals to share their views. As fast as new members join, existing ones leave to become disappointed television-shouters.  I often advise CLPs to appoint or re-instate political education officers, (though I don’t like the Orwellian name) so that someone has specific responsibility in this area.

As for the National Policy Forum,we thought we had problems before but that’s nothing to what’s happening now. In Government, with all of the intense pressures that this put on Ministers, policy papers were agreed with the membership via a two-year rolling programme. It’s both remarkable and sad that now we’re in Opposition, this process seems to have stopped. Wobbles as such as Stephen Twigg’s naïve pronouncements about free schools were less likely when, at any time, you could point to Labour Party policy – shared policy, as opposed to the views of one individual or another.

If we were to let the NPF die, then we would have to re-invent it, or something similar, if we’re going to build a winning party. At the moment the NPF is like an army that’s eager to get into battle but forced to sit in reserve. I say to the Party, please let us help.