At the May 2010 general elections, we lost hundreds of councillors, thousands of members and five million voters. As a party, we cannot ignore that.
Over the next six weeks, I will be asking the public to contribute their thoughts, ideas, views and experiences to critically review and assess where we are at as a party, to take stock of the current situation, and set out the key questions on what we should do, and where Labour needs to go next.
While the past year has demonstrated our resilience and ability to adapt, we still have a long road ahead to regain the trust of the British people and restore the faith that voters and our supporters lost in us. The differing results in Wales and Scotland could not show that more clearly.
The Labour party cannot ignore that fundamental changes in British politics mean Labour must change fundamentally if it is to lead progressive opinion and win again. Essentially our party’s structure has not changed since 1918. Whilst there are many traditions that we rightly hold dear, we cannot ignore that Britain and British society has changed markedly in the past 100 years.
There are many issues we need to canvass and consider, and one of these must be party membership and the involvement of our supporters. The two main political parties have seen their membership decline as the focus of life has moved from a communitarian model to a more individualist and consumerist one. While other parties have increased their membership, our activist base was seriously depleted during our 13 years in government.
This will not simply mean running another membership drive but discovering and engaging with the reasons why so many of our supporters, and, on occasion, activists, don’t join the party any more. We need to understand why we lost so many members and supporters and change accordingly. Policies were not solely to blame, as over time certain sections of our membership began to feel disengaged and disillusioned. Now is the time for us to change this. There are a lot of different suggestions on the table – from offering associate membership for supporters to allowing supporters to vote in selections. While we can be proud of 50,000 new members joining the party since May 2010, we must ensure they join a party where they feel they are listened to and can play a role. Our structure must be open and allow members, supporters and organisations to contribute to our policymaking process.
Real change of this nature cannot be imposed from above. Yes, leadership is needed, but unless we all participate in the work of Refounding our party it won’t truly happen. Refounding Labour is an opportunity for all of our members, stakeholders and supporters, to express what they like about the party’s structure and organisation and also what they think needs to be changed. I hope that those who identify with the Labour party and its values will contribute to this consultation so that we can strive towards victory and a more progressive Britain, opposing the damage made by increasingly damaging and destructive Tory policies that are threatening the very foundations of the values, institutions and communities we cherish.
The Refounding Labour website (www.refoundinglabour.org) will be an accessible space for sharing what you care about in the Labour party and what you would change in it. Please do send in your submissions and tweet using the #refoundlab hashtag. The deadline for submissions is Friday 24 June.
I posted a Change comment on http://www.refoundinglabour.org but in truth it came as little shock that the Political Elite didn’t publish it. That says everything about the party at the moment and sadly reflects as much as the failure of the Yes campaign showed Political Elitism at it worse. Labour needs to change at the grass routes because their are far to many of the old guard who are set in their ways and at the top where far to many of the Political Elite believe they are right and its the people who don’t listen to them who are wrong. As someone who was standing and did a lot of work in my ward to get elected but who withdrew my application because of the nonsense from Yes Campaign about being a Tory, if I didn’t support them, along with my lack of willingness to support Ed in what I thought was and what turned about to be such a huge misjudgement, it a simple fact that mindset needs to change but I am not sure, despite gimmicks, that it ever will. The ward was what the Political Elite class as a safe seat and, in turn, wasn’t worth bothering with but was won through effort not money thrown at it but effort, time and energy, engaging with the community etc. are being largely dismissed as ‘just a reaction to Nick Clegg’ when it wasn’t (The Tories held the ward) in the same way the Yes campaign which was so thoroughly defeated is blaming the Clegg reaction when it should be recognising the campaign was flawed with or without Clegg’s involvement. The dinosaurs at grass route, need to stop their own self serving interests which turns people off from getting involved but the Political Elite also need to learn that listening exercises should be that never gimmicks just to appease then dismiss becuase they know best.
The so called dinosaurs are what formed the party.It is they that deserted it when it played the compliant spaniel to the forces of the market. Blair, with his lies, & Brown with his ‘son of the manse’ credo, are what made the support dwindle.
The Labour party should end its appalling active support of the gamebird shooting industry and the associated ‘predator control’ of snaring. Until Labour ends its support of bloodsports it will be viewed in a highly negative light by the animal welfare vote and compassionate people across the country.