Peter Kenyon

If....Labour's new Leader wants members to have a proper voice

Ed Miliband stated his ambition to give members a 'proper voice' last month at the Labour Party's Annual Conference. If I were asked where to start, what would I advise? 'Sacking' Pat McFadden MP as the chair of the National Policy Forum is not where I would have started. Don't get me wrong, I am not shedding any tears for Pat himself. But the Party's whole policy-making process is so seriously flawed that there are some members would like to scrap it and return to formulating resolutions. That would be a mistake IMHO.

Some serious thought was given to the process by the unofficial LabOUR Commission in the wake of the 2005 General Election. Primary research was undertaken resulting in two LabOUR/YouGov polls in 2006 - the findings can still be downloaded from here . An Interim Report was published after the 2007 local elections and can be downloaded here.

The specific recommendations on policy making were:

6.16. Proposed reforms:
a) The NPF should be reconstituted as an openly elected body on a one member one vote (OMOV) principle from relevant constituent parts. Constituency section members should be elected by OMOV,
probably on a regional basis.
b) The Party should aim to make sure that the final policy document is fully reflected in the Labour Party manifesto in according with the Rules and Constitution.
c) Democratic participatory policy formulation will require a new Secretariat at arm's length from the Party in Government with a transparency protocol for the NPF and NEC.
d) The chair of each policy commission should be an NPF member elected by the NPF.
e) The JPC should be reconstituted as an elected organisational body to ensure effective coordination of policy making in a timely fashion. It should not have powers to alter NPF policy recommendations. Its members should be elected from within the NPF by the NPF.
f) The JPC should establish a clear timetable for the rolling programme set for each parliamentary cycle. This should be communicated to all CLPs, Branches, Labour Groups and posted on the web.
g) Consultative reports should be despatched to all Party units with an invitation to respond and a (suggested) template for responses allowing time for proper consideration of the proposals.
h) All Branches – either individually, grouped or through a CLP all members’ forum as considered appropriate locally – should be encouraged to have a special meeting to consider policy documents. There should also be a one page summary and briefing sheet for Branch Chairs/Political Education Officers (PEOs).
i) The contact details of all NPF members should be available so they can be invited to speak at the local policy forums.
j) Publication of all submissions on the Party website so other parties, members and affiliates can access submissions and cross fertilise ideas.
k) All parties sending submissions should receive an (electronic) acknowledgement and link to where it is posted within a month. After the closing date, an independent analysis of all submissions
should be posted on the website and, together with the response and actions of both the Policy Commission and NPF, circulated to parties submitting. Thus there is a clear audit trail.
l) When a PiP dialogue focuses on contemporary issues (e.g. the decision to invade Iraq), CLPs should continue to make formal submissions and send resolutions as they feel fit, but these should
be acknowledged, published and – on key issues – analysed. Branches should be encouraged to conduct the dialogue through their CLP in a collective democratic endeavour, which incidentally
would make the process more manageable.
m) Individual members and Branches who make submissions on policy issues electronically or in writing should always be acknowledged and provided with a response where possible. They should also be advised that if they are dissatisfied with the response that they can ask their Constituency Party to make a formal submission.
n) In the event of policy differences at the NPF, minority reports should be drawn up for debate at Annual Conference and/or CLPs and affiliated bodies should have the right of amendment to NPF
documents by resolution to Conference.
o) In the event of policy differences between the Party in Government and Conference, a new mechanism is required to enable the NEC to appoint a special working party comprising  representatives of government, and the NPF to secure resolution within a limited time period after Annual Conference.

As of today, over three and a half years later, the NEC has yet to agree procedures for nomination and election to any Joint Policy Committee, National Policy Forum or Policy Commission positions. Nor has it embraced readily available web-based techniques to provide an audit trail for submissions. An example of how transparency might be achieved can be seen here.

Peter Hain, MP who is Ed Miliband's nominee to replace Pat McFaddan as chair of the National Policy Forum and possible joint convenor of the Joint Policy Committee will, if elected, face an uphill struggle to restore members' confidence in the party's policy-making process.

If I were him, I would be making sure that that the new Leader was seized of the need to put a plausible nomination and election procedure in place well before the NPF meets on 27 November. That is easier said than done as there is no National Executive Committee meeting until the following Tuesday, 30 November. Sorting this pdq would send a clear message to the party that policy making will be overseen by Labour people with democratic legitamacy, willing to be held to account.

No Labour Party chair? But machine grinds, on. No NEC until 30 Nov.

I can't help wondering whether or not our new Leader, Ed Miliband, has dropped the pretence of Party Chair.

No one was listed as such in the Shadow Cabinet line up yesterday.

If he has, it will be another small step for Party democracy.

There is a big job to be done on party renewal as I blogged about here. Extending a constitutional fiction by patronage, which is what such an appointment amounted to, is not the way forward. An early meeting of the National Executive Committee is needed to discuss and agree a programme for Party renewal. Contrary to what I was told by General Secretary Ray Collins that body is now not meeting until 30 November. That leaves the machine in control of the National Palicy Forum (NPF). Its chair, mandate long expired, Pat McFadden received a ringing vote of confidence (not) from the PLP in the Shadow Cabinet elections.

If that doesn't ring alarm bells in the new Leader's office. Then I hope this little snippet below does.

I'm told that the NPF has now been put back a week until 27 November as London Head Office overlooked an important event in the Welsh Labour Party calendar leading up to next May's Assembly elections. Talking to newly elected members in Manchester during Conference most had no idea what was being planned and when.

Hopefully, that will change soon.

 

 

Imagine : a Labour NEC - 'They work for you' service

Deep in the bowels of the Labour Party, nominations are being sought by members who want to stand for election to its National  Executive Committee. I am no exception. My statement can be read here. Efforts to promote greater party democracy, initially pioneered (at least in my memory) by the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, continue and by lots more organisations and people. Labour UnCut is distracted by shenanigans on the left over nominations. Though Cowards Flinch carries a critical analysis of the contributions of the Labour leadership candidates to that debate. (Not easy reading if you're Diane Abbott.)But how do members keep an independent track of what the current members of the NEC actually do?

As part of any party democracy renewal package it seems to me that there is a case to be made for a service like the one 'They work for you' site offers the electorate regarding MPs. Just imagine Labour MPs/MEPs/Lords and Ladies being able being able to track what Michael Cashman MEP, Dennis Skinner MP and Angela Smith MP have been up to? And so on...those 150,000 something members being able to keep tabs on both the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance (not to be confused with Grassroots Labour) NEC slate members: Ann Black, Christine Shawcroft, Pete Willsman plus myself (Peter Kenyon) and the Labour First slate's: Ellie Reeves and Peter Wheeler. As for the three million plus affiliated members the list of Trade Union and Socialist Society NEC delegates is too long to repeat here. But you get the idea.

So who else is up for shining a light in this dark place? Would a summary of the voting record of constituency section members on key issues in the last 24 months ahead of the NEC ballot in September enable members to take a more informed decision about whom to vote for when the ballot papers arrive? Or will it just be another beauty contest?

Glazing over - bewilderment at joining the Labour Party - what's the antidote?

I'm struggling with what to say, beyond the usual welcome and signposting, to all those people who have just joined the Labour Party,. They have now been assigned to a local Labour Party branch based on their postcode. I wonder how many of them knew that when they filled in the application form and paid their membership fee? I have a dual responsibility as local branch secretary, as well as secretary of the constituency labour party (CLP) - all the detested aspects of 'Old Labour' rolled up in an official function - booking rooms, drawing up agendas, assembling papers, finding speakers, writing minutes.

I'm already drowning. How do I explain a branch? Ditto a constituency? My branch is City of London. It covers 25 electoral wards. Elsewhere some are contiguous with a local government electoral ward from which councillors are elected to the local councils and so I could go on.

My experience of Labour Party life is that the majority of members pay their subscriptions as an expression of civic engagement and that's it. They have lots of entitlements such as choosing candidates for balloting, whether for public office or internal positions, like currently that of Leader, and helping shape policy. On the other hand the vast majority of staff who work for the Labour Party believe members are for delivering leaflets, and knocking on doors - fullstop. According to one apocryphal tale - the Labour Party should be 'massive, but passive'. Their latest wheeze is not even to send out nomination papers for Deputy Leader, when Rule 4.2.D.i says:

When the PLP is in opposition in the House of Commons, the election of the leader and deputy leader shall take place at each annual session of party conference.

I know it came as a bit of shock to some people that we might not win the 2010 General Election. But we are where we are - in Opposition. So given my tasks this morning, assembling all the information cascading in about elections - Leader, Deputy Leader, National Executive Committee - Division III CLPs, Party Treasurer, Auditors, Conference Arrangements Committee, National Constitutional Committee, National Policy Forum Division 1 CLP section, London Mayor, not forgetting the CLP Chair's report, 2010 General Election Report, Westminster City Council 2010 Election Report, Treasurer' Report - you may discern my dilemma. Mark my words, if I omit any prospective candidate's statement for any one of the offices cited above, I run the risk of being accused of a 'stitchup' by someone in the Labour Party who does not share my views either about governance or policy.

In the meantime, those eager new or returning members are awaiting encouragement (or, perhaps, not). So it's time to hit the eMail/telephone and find out. I think that should be my first priority. But.... the paperwork. Procrastination, yeah. But it's all in a good cause. I just hope my initial contact is warmly welcomed. Our branch has what I like to think of as a healthy blend of campaigning, debate, fundraising and socialising. There's a risk. The idea of meeting with an agenda could provoke glazing over, and bewilderment. It just that the campaigning, debate, fundraising and socialising don't just happen - they require organisation. We could revert to the leitmotif of new Labour - sofa government - no written agendas, no minutes. That worked didn't it? Oh, stop it, Kenyon, get on the blower.

Labour's winning combination: policies, passion, processes and party democracy

Admittedly, current opinion polling data is not encouraging for the Labour Party. At least not for the faint hearted. But then think about who's paying for those polls and publishing - a largely hostile media. Meanwhile, in the real world, there are the markets, places of work, leisure and home. And for political party activists, a relentless work programme from an electoral ward in a local authority to capturing the attention of electorate nationally.

This is an election when contrary to the siren calls of those who claim that most votes don't count in a first-past-the post election, every single vote will count in 2010 - wherever it is cast.

Living in a Conservative held parliamentary seat (Cities of London and Westminster), and a place where local council elections took place last year (City of London), I've still been mobilising members in my own Labour Party branch. Some are keeping our Labour candidate for the General Election in the limelight by delivering leaflets, others like me are also canvassing in a neighbouring electoral ward Bunhill Ward in Islington South. Membership alone is not the driver. Nor dreams about possible outcomes. Organisation and policies are key within a framework of party democracy. Having rebuild a local branch, we have members who understand the importance of a political narrative, regular voter identification, messages for postal voters, canvassing of PVers, members to take polling numbers on election day, others to knock to Get Out The Vote. With polling stations open from 7 am to 10 pm breaking up the day into one-hour shifts - a small army is required in every branch, not just constituency to optimise the vote.

Bunhill Ward, like most electoral wards in London has three polling stations. That is 13 - one-hour shifts times three making 39 shifts just to collect numbers,. Then there are runners to pick up, committee room staff to enter and produce 'Knocking-up' sheets for those additional members with the most stamina to walk/jog/run  round reminding 'promises' to actually vote. (There is scope for efficiencies using electronic devices, but that's another story.) It should be done with 20 people/ branch, ideally more. So across a densely populated urban constituency that would be some 200 volunteers - and that's just on polling day. 

So tiring it might be, but 'tired old politics' - oh no. This is the stuff of real politics that reflects our policies, passion, process and party democracy. Parliamentary democracy is not just about a vote when a General Election is called. It's about on-going debate reflecting values - the bedrock of tackling events. If anyone wants to clean up British politics, then their plans have to encompass accountability, party AND parliamentary democracy. All three main political party leaders have shown themselves wanting in that regard. None of them readily embraces party democracy. If Brown really wants to win he will show he understands he owes his career to the Labour Party. It is the Labour Party that has brought fairness to the many. it is the Labour Party that thanks to its members and supporters has a manifesto to offer 'A future fair for all'. 

The economy is on the mend. Today's International Herald Tribune carries some very encouraging words:

Policy Exchange, a British research organization, has written: “Though many people find it hard to believe, the United Kingdom is still a major manufacturing economy — the sixth in the world,” whose output is about equal to Italy’s and a bit bigger than that of France. Although Britain’s deficit, according to the E.U.’s statistical agency, is troublingly high at 11.5 percent compared with Germany’s 3.3 percent, its debt as a percentage of G.D.P. is smaller, 68 percent versus 73.2 percent. And so was its March unemployment rate, 8 percent in Britain against 8.5 percent in Germany, where Rainer Bruderle, the German economics minister, branded “our little Job Miracle” the envy of the world. The International Monetary Fund even projects growth in Britain as out-doing the euro-zone average this year and next. 

Not bad. 

I'd say. So Labour Party Leader, Gordon Brown's job in the remaining 9 days of the campaign is to empathise with the electorate seeking reassurance. He needs to focus on the benefits of public sector investment, the banks back in profit, recapitalised able and more willing to lend, and look forward to rising tax revenues from growth to help reduce the fiscal deficit without draconian public spending cuts or massive tax hikes. 

He should also take some credit for helping stimulate interest in our politics by agreeing to the TV debates. But that will only be credible if he sets himself and his party firmly on the side of ongoing political engagement and collegiate policy making, rather than concentrating more power in the hands of the party leaders and their power brokers (m'lord Mandelson, take note).