If you want change, be a part of it

Another miserably cold GC meeting on a Monday night in the late 90’s, the secretary reads out some standard resolutions condemning the party leadership and some round-robin letters from head office…

“They are seeking nominations for something called the National Policy Forum.”  The room falls silent, then the usual suspect mutters; “It’s bound to be another head office stitch up.”  That was it, I wanted to prove him wrong; “Put my name down.”

A decade and a half later here we are in the final stages of our policy making process in the run up to one of the toughest, and probably nastiest, general election campaigns for decades. Public opinion and the supporters of political parties are deeply divided on the future direction our leaders should take, agreeing policies to connect with the public will really matter.

Can ordinary members really make a difference though, won’t our leadership decide anyway? Over my years on the NPF I have at times seen members views disregarded, especially on too many high profile issues, but I have also seen how members have greatly influenced Labour ministers/shadow ministers in a way members of other political party members can only dream about. Yes, I appreciate that my old cynical friend will have had cause to be genuinely angry when he read the newspaper, but if only he could have seen or known about the outcomes of face to face discussions between CLP, trade unionist, socialist society and Co-op Party representatives and our ministers/shadow ministers.

But there lies one of our biggest problems to date – poor communication that leaves members uninformed about policy development. I don’t blame CLPs or even my usual suspect for being angry, they have rarely heard what has happened to their contributions to policy documents. If I’m honest that lack of engagement has partly been part of a historical nervousness about genuine partnership working between the different elements of our party.

I have though seen successive chairs of the NPF try with varying degrees of success to build trust between the party leadership, trade unions and CLPs. It has taken a lot longer than I had hoped all those years ago but now there has been a real step change with Angela Eagle, working with Ed Milliband and Iain McNicol, boldly and dramatically stepping into a new era of much more open and transparent debate. Because of the years of mis-trust it won’t be easy for members to put the past behind us but this is our big chance.

You can choose, do you want to be a usual suspect complaining from the sidelines or are you going to speak up, do something and be a part of it? Please prompt or join in with your CLP discussions of the policy documents, put forward changes where they are needed and tell your elected NPF representatives about it so they can track your contributions on the ‘Your Britain’ website and feedback to you. If you want change, be a part of it.

Simon Burgess is the CLP Vice-Chair of Labour’s National Policy Forum