Ann Black identifies the priorities for Labour in the time remaining before the general election
As Labour gathers for its conference in Brighton, penned behind the ring of steel, the omens are mixed. The recession is easing, but the summer saw errors over Gurkhas’ settlement rights, compensation for wounded soldiers and the lingering MPs’ expenses scandal. Blaming the SNP for freeing Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, will not wash. Instead Labour hits out at soft targets in agreeing to deport Gary McKinnon, the hacker with Asperger’s syndrome, to face rough justice in the United States for accessing military computers in search of evidence of UFOs.
The Labour conference must reunite the party around a programme to enthuse its volunteers and regain the confidence of voters. This could include linking the national minimum wage and out-of-work benefits to earnings; chasing tax evaders rather than bashing the poor and disabled; funding every young person who qualifies for higher education; coughing up for pleural plaques sufferers before they die; keeping the Royal Mail in public ownership; and spending the billions earmarked for Trident on something useful. Gordon Brown must spell out that Labour did not act to help greedy bankers, but to protect millions of ordinary people who would have lost their life savings if the banking system had collapsed. Puncturing the “bonuses are back” balloon by tackling excessive rewards would reinforce that message.
Policy must hold centre stage throughout and I hope conference delegates will defer deciding whether to continue with contemporary issues or return to resolutions. The main audience is not in the hall, but at home on the sofa: heated debates on concrete issues are fine and even exciting, but arguments over arcane procedures display a party divided over something which few outsiders understand. A full and frank discussion can wait until next year.
Before then, there is much to do. Some MPs have been on the doorstep since June 2005. Others have not. Recent by-elections showed voter-ID to be non-existent or years out of date. More vacancies than usual are expected and the National Executive Committee must exercise sensitivity in improving gender balance through all-women shortlists and promoting opportunities for ethnic minorities, while not demoralising local parties any more.
We could also improve the quality of candidates: the Labour MP who told the Observer: “I’m off. You can’t earn a decent living here any more. I want to earn some money” has no place as a Labour representative. Whatever Tony Blair’s faults, he was right to say that no one who joined in the early 1980s could be accused of careerism.
And members want to take the fight to the Tories. They despair when yet again “no minister is available” to rebut media and opposition critics. Responding to the meandering e-mails from the party’s headquarters, one wrote: “You really do need to sharpen your political teeth and claws. The Tories have to be grabbed by the metaphorical balls and thrown about the room a bit.”
Finally, while hoping and working for the best, we have to secure the party for the future – whatever happens at the general election. That means valuing young members, whose importance goes beyond knocking on doors and delivering leaflets. Older activists, including me, joined because of Margaret Thatcher, appalled by the social divisions she created. Today’s leadership grew up through years in opposition. But next year’s first-time voters were not born when Thatcher left Downing Street and have lived all their adult lives under this Labour Government. Frightening them with Tory bogeymen will not work: we are the establishment now. So young people must say what will inspire them to get involved – only one-third of under-25s vote, compared with two-thirds of over-65s. If the election does go badly, their generation will have to remake the party and take us back to power.
It also means maintaining a coherent national organisation across areas with no direct Labour representation. Following June’s local election results, similar losses at Westminster would turn the entire south of England Tory blue, while the different dynamics in Scotland and Wales bring increasing unpredictability. Unless all those members feel they belong to a community of shared values they will leave, taking their experience, their ideals and yes, their subscriptions and donations, with them.
New technology can be invaluable and email lets me talk with thousands of members whom I will never meet. But the party has to recognise that effective communication is a two-way process. People are infuriated by top-down pronouncements or appeals for money where all replies bounce back unread. There must be a person – an MP, a councillor or a volunteer – listening and responding. And Twittering about webcasts can alienate support in areas where opponents are practising old-fashioned pavement politics: farmers’ markets, gardening clubs, coffee mornings and making friends. In the end, politics is about connections between people and we forget that at our peril. Nurturing those connections must be the top priority for the NEC through the year ahead.
Ann Black is a constituency representative and vice-chair of Labour’s national executive committee. Her reports are at blogs.labour.org.uk/annblack, and she can be contacted at annblack50@btinternet.com
