Is there any such thing as a perfect crime? Reading m'Lord Collins's letter to Labour Party members published yesterday here about Refounding Labour had me wondering. Here was the outgoing general secretary of the Labour Party proclaiming the outcomes of a controversial consultation, declining to offer any details, that will consolidate a command and control model of politics for another generation.
His letter is littered with clues. The mere fact that it was written a week before Labour's Annual Conference will be enough for some. Then consider who it was written to - individual members. How are they going to be able to convene, consider and decide how to mandate their elected representative to Conference in the coming week? The answer, even for the e-literate is only with extreme difficulty. Describing how it's possible is the subject for another blog. For me, possibly the most telling utterence was m'Lord's statement on changes to the procedure for selecting the Shadow Cabinet:
Rights and responsibilities of the party leader will be defined for the first time, including control over appointments to the Shadow Cabinet. [my bold]
This could be an important clue. Anti-democratic behaviour is now so deeply engrained in the Labour Party that our elected representatives are brazen about their entitlements. Our society is suffering a pandemic of ADD - Accountability Deficit Disorder. The political class has the most acute form: SADD - Serious Accountability Deficit Disorder. That condition arises from it having been exposed to prolonged right-wing media influences promoting intense fear and distorted vision, a fixation on neo-liberal thinking to the detriment of the hapless majority. Labour's Refounding Labour 'consultation' is a case in point.
The circumstances leading up to a decision by Labour's newly elected Leader Ed Miliband to want to be able to appoint his Shadow Cabinet reflect the construction of Labour's electoral college, the outcome of the leadership election last autumn, and doubts about the loyalties possibly of a majority of Labour elected representatives in the House of Commons. In plain language, they couldn't be trusted to elect a Shadow Cabinet loyal to the Leader. This cascades down through stripping out local government committees to an 'anything goes approach' to local party organisation that tolerates 'family and friends' command and control without question. As for candidate selection: incumbency rules.
As currently constituted, the Labour Party remains the creature of that section of the political class that believes in my Leader right or wrong - a communion of Latter Day Royalists aka Blairites. Public distrust of politicians is still on the rise as evidenced last week with the publication of fresh data by the Committee on Standards in Public Life. That trend can only be reversed with a dramatic change in behaviour.
The clue to Refounding Labour is on every member's party card. The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. So there is a simple test that could be applied to all the proposed rule changes still being kept under wraps by Labour's high command - does this change make the party more democratic and or socialist or not?
Much will depend on the role of the trade union representatives on Labour's National Executive Committee which has its Pre-Conference meeting in two days time on Tuesday 20 September. Are they ready to herald that needed shift to a more democratic party that will help membership recruitment and retention, and persuade Ed Miliband he has nothing to lose politically by enabling members a proper say in the future direction of the Labour Party?
Until the actual rule changes are published, it is genuinely difficult to be sure. But I wrote to Peter Hain the week before last with a copy of a resolution passed unanimously by the City of London Labour Party calling for publication of the submissions and a period of reflection leading to a special conference on Refounding Labour in the spring.
He replied:
Sorry we simply don't agree because I thought you like me want reforms to empower grass roots members and turn Labour from an obsolete Party like our rivals into a popular movement relevant to today's politics. That's what RF aims to do and you can help make it happen.
Here's an extract from my response:
There is nothing in the current rule book that prevents our local party getting on with campaigning or fundraising or reaching out into our local community, which it does.
