In common with most constituencies, my local party has seen a significant jump in membership since the election. Many of these new members are hugely enthusiastic, keen to be involved in campaigning, pleased they’ll have a vote in the leadership election, looking forward to having their say about the future direction and priorities of the Labour party.
The upbeat mood of the membership matches the mood of Labour in parliament. The shadow ministerial team has been highly effective in challenging the government, and backbenchers crowd the chamber to question and criticise ministers.
So the party’s looking good: determined, united, growing – and up for the fight. With local elections for many of us only 10 months off, we’ve been right back out campaigning, attacking what’s proving to be an excessively rightwing government, energised by our anger at what they’re doing, eager to move in on the Lib Dems as the polls show their support collapse.
It’s great to see Labour as a strong campaigning organisation, and everyone’s agreed that we need to keep our membership, especially our new members, involved and engaged. That comes in part from local efforts to welcome and involve them in campaigning activity – but it comes too from ensuring that members have the right to participate in and shape the political debate. And that’s not just important for us internally – it’s important if we’re to create a compelling vision that engages the electorate, one that isn’t just about what’s wrong with the government, but is clear about what we’d do differently, what Labour stands for.
We must have that vision as the prerequisite of regaining power, giving voters a reason to vote Labour again. Of course there will be plenty to attack, as cuts in public spending and the dismantling of our public services begin to bite hard. But despite the pain that’s undoubtedly coming, there is still a large risk for Labour in the public perception that something had to be done about the deficit, coupled with the government refrain that “Labour got us into this mess”.
We can and must resist those arguments, for we have a strong story to tell about our track record over the past 13 years. Let’s be clear: the deficit is not the consequence of Labour profligacy. Since 1997, we had been investing in a fairer society, rebuilding a public infrastructure destroyed by 18 years of Tory government. Then, in 2007, the rise in public borrowing to bail out the banks was the result of an essential rescue package in response to a global economic crisis – where it’s widely recognised Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling led the way, and the Tories called it wrong. And for the aftermath of the crisis, we can demonstrate in detail that we did have a credible plan to reduce the deficit too.
But getting over the story about our past record and recovery plans isn’t all we must do. We need to convey the vision that we have for the future, and build a policy programme that embodies that. That must be done with the full engagement of our members, and we really shouldn’t be frightened of vigorous debate.
In recent years that didn’t happen inside our party, and so it’s no surprise that our membership declined. Now that it’s on the increase, we must ensure that part of the deal for our members is that their voice counts. That means of course that we must invest in the political education of our party, but for that too we should recognise that our members bring us a whole range of expertise on which we can draw.
It’s said that nobody wants to sit around in dusty Labour party meetings, that members want to be out organising in the community, activists and campaigners first. But my sense is that many do want to be part of a vibrant debate about policy and politics (watch a group of members in the pub after a party meeting), and we need to create the party structures that give proper recognition to the importance of that aspect of party membership too. Political debate is not inward-looking self-indulgence, it’s what many members join for, it says something positive about us as a party if we do it well, and it’s the way we create a strong narrative and vision that engages voters too.
A new leader, thousands of new members and a new and very testing political climate give us a chance to do things differently from the past few years. Let’s be bold in the debate about how we do that – for the united, confident party that we’ve been since the election, it will be an early and powerful sign of our strength.
I agree that there is a lot of enthusiasm out there for joining Labour. Today I printed out a membership form and dropped it into my neighbour who is interested in joining. Now the Tories are back in, albeit weaker as part of a coalition, there is a new sense of urgency. I am helping to organise a get together for new members in our Ward to welcome them in, a good way to welcome them will be to meet them first socially. There is also talk of knocking on each of their doors to introduce ourselves and invite them to our next meeting/social event. I think I am right in saying we are currently running a special offer for new ‘Young Labour’ members. I suggest we extend this offer across the board to all age groups. Perhaps introductory ‘one off’ offers at street stalls where people sign on the day would be of benefit. I’ve been a Labour member for 20 years and don’t want my membership fee to be spent on frivolous stuff but perhaps we could introduce a few ‘additional benefits’ to being a Labour party member. There may already be such initiatives in place but a little sweetener for new members eg ‘Insurance deal with the Co operative party or offers from Labour friendly businesses could be positive. What do others think? I went to a talk by Ed Miliband last week and was impressed by his presentation and fielding of questions. I liked Ed’s support of a maximum wage for the most highly paid and his realistic views on Iraq, he accepted some of the responsibility and made his point well that it was time to review our relationship with the US.