Removing the rift once and for all

Last week we brought you the news of Labour’s new “Executive Board”. Since then voices on both the left and right of the party have had their say, and expressed some of their concerns. I share some of them.

I think that the addition of an extra (seventh) executive director at short notice (a position which wasn’t advertised and for which no job description in publicly available) flies in the face of the open and transparent recruitment process that was originally mooted. I think that the addition of the leader’s Chief of Staff (and deputy) to the executive board – whilst positive and rational in many ways – risks undermining, even just presentationaly, the General Secretary (especially when backed up with some pretty unsubtle briefing against him). And I’m concerned that there’s a lack of women at the top of the party, which this process has exacerbated rather than resolved.

But in the grand scheme of things these are gripes. The problems within the party machine can (and must be) resolved. What is important, and what should be paramount, is “what works”. Or to use a quote which Jack Straw is said to have been fond of using in cabinet “once the line is established, organisation is everything.”

The “line” that the party were putting out on Friday was:

“The central idea behind these appointments is that there is no distinction between the Leader’s Office and Labour Party HQ. The point is that we are one organisation with the Executive Directors managing staff based in both Victoria St and in the Leader’s Office. To see a division is to miss the central thrust of what is being achieved here.“

If that’s the line. The plan. Then let’s at least do it properly.

In a few weeks, the Labour Party moves from Victoria Street to a new HQ. that’s another opportunity for a new start for the party. Executive boards and statements about the leader’s office and HQ being as one are all well and good, but there’s one sure fire way of making them a reality. The Tories did it in opposition, and we should do likewise – the leader’s office should be based in Labour HQ.

No more divisions. No more cabals or so-called coups. No more divisions – organisational or geographic. One party. One set of staff. One system, working to win the next election. Clean, clear and simple. So simple it might just work.

Oh, and the “pads” should probably work out of HQ rather than acting as unregulated agents of individual shadow cabinet members. But that’s an idea for another day…