The value of debate

I hope you will forgive me for what will – inevitably – be a rather self-indulgent post.

I am coming to the end of my second stint guest editing LabourList and have never been more convinced of the value of the work that we do and the offer we have to the Labour Party and the wider political debate. In the last week I have published pieces by MPs, by shadow cabinet members and by someone who will not be old enough to vote in 2015. I have published pieces by people who have never written for LabourList before and pieces by regular writers. Every one of them is an authentic Labour voice with an interesting point to make.

I haven’t agreed with every piece I have published. This is LabourList, not Emma’s List. Our job is to publish the whole spectrum of the vibrant debate happening across the Labour family. It always amuses me when people link to posts here saying “LabourList thinks X”. We want to see a Labour Government elected as soon as possible. Beyond that, we don’t take positions, we publish them and allow our readers to come to their own conclusions. If you read something on LabourList you disagree with and can make a good, well written Labour-focused argument to explain why, we will publish you. It’s as simple as that.

We are now entering the long campaign period towards the next General Election. LabourList will be campaigning vigorously for the election of a Labour Government. However, we will continue to publish pieces that are critical of the Party and of its constituent parts. We believe these debates make our party more – not less – robust. But as we do so, our site, and our ability to campaign on the issues that matter to Labour Party members and voters is under threat.

As Mark has written previously, the Government’s Lobbying and Transparency Bill threatens our ability to continue to host, encourage and stoke political debate. We are not alone. Charities, pressure groups and others up and down the country will find their voices stifled by the Government if this bill passes in anything like its current form. The Government have taken genuine and well placed concern about the buying of influence and warped it to stifle dissent. This is wrong and we will be fighting these measures every step of the way.

But we remain true to our core values. So if someone can write a good, well written Labour-focused argument in support of these measures, we’ll consider publishing it. Because we remain dedicated to debate.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed, commented and read Labourlist over the last week I have been editing and over the years it has been running.