Matt Cooke Articles

The future of local government must be participative, not one of command and control

Labour must focus on the ‘how’ and not the ‘why’ in attacking the Tories

Power isn’t comfortable and it shouldn’t be. Government is hard and
the big decisions are almost always the most controversial ones.

Big decisions can be personally and politically tough for ministers,
MPs, councillors and all those we elect to make them. But these same
decisions can be just as hard for the party supporters and activists
because situations will always arise which require a decision and a
choice; tough choices about this and that, choices welcomed by one
group, derided by another; that is the nature of power. Our supporters
and activists may not be immersed in the bubble of Westminster politics
or the 24-hour media cycle of news and information flowing directly
from the centre, but it is those supporters who we still expect to
maintain support and get out there during elections, on the doorsteps
conveying the party’s messages to voters.

‘Representing the future’ – the Report of the Councillors Commission could have come at no better time for the informing of the debate about the renewal of democratic engagement in the UK.

Reading the report through again this weekend (it was released back in December) I couldn’t help thinking how important developing new ideas about local governance will be in parallel to those needed in national party politics – they’re mutually essential debates we have to embrace in the coming years, and as Labour’s progressives we have and need to be at the cutting edge of the implementation of its conclusions.