Peter Kenyon

Who was the last Labour politician to actively promote a million member party?

With membership languishing at less than 200,000, a sudden flurry of self-congratulatory comments about Labour Party membership being higher than Cameron's Tories seems mildly absurd.

I'm struggling to find the reason for this obsessing about political party membership. Though I did spot a piece in the Daily Mail newspaper earlier today reporting the loss of members by Britain's right to rule party under David Cameron's leadership - down a third bayed the shires. Lamentably, in the interests of perspective, I have been reminding the Twittersphere, Labour lost over 50% of its members while Tony Blair was Prime Minister. That figure is a crude measure, since the Labour Party along with all other political parties fails to publish churn figures - how many people join and then leave after less than a year, after a year and so on.

What is clear is that there is an opportunity to rekindle the importance of political parties in civic society. Those matters are discussed in two pieces in tomorrow's Guardian newspaper. British democracy in terminal decline, warns report and Local democracy: the future looks bleak for political activism which quotes me in my former capacity as chair of Save the Labour Party, and now secretary of the Labour Democratic Network.

Mass membership political parties are problematic for the political elite of whatever party. Former Deputy Leader John Prescott discovered that first hand. In the mid-1990s when Labour Party membership had risen consistently for a decade, he voiced the idea that membership could reach a million. Don't take my word for it. I came across this reference in the august London Review of Books during desktop research for these bon mots:

A new organisation called Save the Labour Party forced HQ to confess to a figure of 208,000: half as many members as there had been when Blair won the 1997 election, and nowhere near the million members John Prescott used to boast of as being the party’s achievable goal. 

What the Guardian correspondent John Harris dropped was my reference to images of former Party leader Tony Blair attending local barbecues encouraging socialising among newly recruited members. What happened as soon as Labour won back power in 1997? The one million member target went up in smoke. But he did report the substance from yours truly:

"Ask yourself: when did you last hear an authentic appeal to be active in political parties?" he says [that's me talking]. "Who was the last great champion of party member? The last voice was John Prescott, who took up the cause of getting one million Labour members. But the Blairites simply shut that down."

So the question today is: has Ed Miliband the courage to revive the idea of a million member party?

 

An easy, easy guide to give members a say: PPC selections

The Labour Party NEC has decided a fast-track procedure to get candidates in place asap whilst at the say time giving members priority in the selection process for as long as possible even after a General Election is called. I have already drawn attention to interminable delays in some quarters.

However, this is in sharp and welcome contast to the procedure being deployed now by the Conservative Party, which show it's in a right pickle.That is at least according to this account by leading Tory blogger, Iain Dale here.

Buried in his Friday Snippets, Iain a shameless Tory PPC wannabee reveals:

All other seats are now being selected by the new system in which Eric Pickles nominates a shortlist of at least three.

But back to the democratic socialist party's selection process. Typically, the 'powers that be' have chosen a command and control approach. Applications have to be sent to a central email address. No facility has been provided to enable local party officials to be copied in. That's a pity.

The easy easy guide is this:

1. All members in CLP put on red alert by MP stepping down in grovelling letter for inconvenience caused by late resignation by email and post (there is not a single MP in the House of Commons who could conceivably claim poverty whatever the cost of a 1st class stamp.)

2. All interested applicants to submit CV to Head Office AND a CLP Procedures Secretary

3. Scorecard agreed between CLP and Head Office to be used locally to sift from many to long-list.

4. All members to be offered preference ballot of long listed candidates to 'guide' the Special Selections Panel regarding short-listing.

5. Special Selections Panel to invited CLP representative(s) to observe shortlisting

6. Agree a (record) of the shortlising process between SSP members and the CLP observer(s) for publication.

Reality check: Deadline for Leyton and Wanstead applications 8 February. Interviews for shortlisting 11 February. Applications before deadline announced 60+. Missing procedure: sifting from many to manageable long-list. Watch this space. Why 8 Feb? Why not 5 Feb so local activists could long-list next weekend? Not rocket science, unless you are a control-freak.

The above procedure would ensure an open and transparent method of remaining Labour PPC selections. (Very different from the Pickles approach adopted by the Tories.) Of course, it would reduce the temptation of the 'Labour Party powers that be' to rig the short-list for their preferred candidate. It is so easy, short-list one serious candidate, two plausible make-weights and one that never turns up. Bah, boom!

Of course, the Labour Party NEC disgraced itself last week by failing to rule that any one on the SSP would be disbarred from seeking a seat. It compounded its error by refusing to agree to CLP observer(s) at the shortlisting stage. Not very smart for a party seeking to rebuild trust with the electorate and get re-elected. 'Twas ever thus in TIGMOO.

Tory beggar my neighbour policy: Vote Labour

You heard it from the man himself, David (begger my neighbour) Cameron. The response is obviousl. Vote Labour.