Even some right-wing commentators think Labour's leader, Ed Miliband, has had a good week, thanks mainly to Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite the Union. I disagree. But it would be easy to get distracted by events. After the supposed repositioning of the Labour Party's economic policy, I blogged last week about the "Mess left by Labour" - Voters need to know ConDem mess is worse, and worsening , with a promise ..to be continued.
While most commentators are focused on the Westminster village, media positioning, individual performances as measured by opinion polls, I'm more interested in the structures and processes that shape modern politics.
Having listened to, and read endless speeches and interviews, I'm fed up of my party being blamed for a mess that never was. But after nearly nine years of looking closely at the Labour Party itself, I'm convinced the real mess plaguing Labour's electability is the party itself. Ed Miliband had an opportunity when elected to start to clear up that mess. Instead, he has been making it worse.
There is only one piece of serious empirical research about party membership in the last 10 years that I know about. It was conducted by the LabOUR Commission and still available from the Labour Democratic Network website here . The main conclusion was that both current and lapsed members expected a say in Labour Party policy-making. That was back in 2006, and I doubt the expectation is much different today. For the avoidance of doubt, that's a say, not the right to dictate to or tie the hands of the Leadership. Instead, Labour Party members remain effectively gagged as I set out earlier this month here. Their directly elected representatives on the National Policy Forum for 2010/2012 have not had the courtesy of a single NPF meeting to deliberate policy. Worse, there are sitting members of the National Executive Committee and hopeful candidates bombarding members with election materials, without so much as an apology for having failed to secure a date for an NPF meeting before the ballot papers are issued for the 2012/14 NPF term of office which starts later this year.
This reflects misplaced loyalty to party colleagues. We are members of a democratic socialist party, not a glee club. Think on it. (to be continued.)
