Amid the cacophony of speculation about the future of Gordon Brown’s premiership, the imminent electoral meltdown, and the future direction of the Labour party, I think one aspect is being marginalised, which is the future of the party at a local level, and in local government. It is clear that current crisis is playing out on a national level, with national and international problems catalysed by Westminster intruigue and a failure of national leadership that can speak to the concerns of the people.
Now, the fall-out from this is obviously felt at the local level, as Labour’s loss of councillors in the May elections demonstrates. But it is not clear that the existential worries currently afflicting Gordon Brown and his parliamentary colleagues are shared by their Labour friends on local councils. In Tower Hamlets, for example, the Labour group recently increased their majority after four defections from Respect, and a by-election win (after a popular Lib Dem councillor stood down for health reasons, no less).
Of course, if the local parties are not suffering from the same crisis of purpose, this is probably to do with the differences between the nature of local and national governance. Localities like Tower Hamlets have very specific problems, to which a Labour council can confidently respond within their current ideology, without having to worry about national unity, or whether the same policy would be effective in different boroughs.
So, as the columnists and bloggers search in vain for a viable alternative to Brown, and a new direction for the party, I wonder whether the most coherent and confident voices might come from local government, rather than the national scene, policy wonks, or the unions. They are ideally placed to comment on pressing issues such as community cohesion and knife-crime, and how other concerns such as the environment and immigration can be dealt with in practice.
These are purely my anecdotal thoughts - what are the thoughts and experiences of other Liberal Conspiracy readers and writers?
The ups and downs of parties in local government are discussed in as much detail as anyone could possibly want on Iain Lindley’s site: http://www.vote-2007.co.uk/index.php.
The evidence there is that loca by-elections in marginal seats are performing pretty much in line with national opinion polls.
After next year’s elections there may be very few County Councils (admittedly a dying breed in themselves as more and more Unitaries are rolled out) with any Labour councillors at all on them.
I somehow doubt that we’ll here traditional Labour councils kick up a debate about immigration, as controversy and divisive issues are the last thing they need! Knife crime is also unlikely to paint local councils in a particularly wonderful light.
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com
You mean the fall in knife crime?
I wonder whether the most coherent and confident voices might come from local government, rather than the national scene, policy wonks, or the unions. They are ideally placed to comment on pressing issues such as community cohesion and knife-crime, and how other concerns such as the environment and immigration can be dealt with in practice.
That assumes of course that local authorities and local Labour members have some direct means of influencing and shaping policy at national level - I get the impression that there is a (deliberate?) disconnect between the local and the national to stop the pesky activists ruining everything…but I might be wrong.
Labour isn’t on it’s knees, it’s just fighting against the surging tide of history which it has helped create.
If you’re inside Labour, you must be tearing your hair out at the unfolding tragedy, but if you’re not you’ll probable be torn between the comedy and poetry of the situation.
Labour lost over 10% of its incumbent councillors just 3 months ago. Short memories much? Of course Labour, just like all the parties, will still always have thousands of councillors because of the way the system is set up, but it doesn’t indicate some great reserve of strength- rather, you are continuing losses despite around a decade of great decline.
In reality, Labour councils don’t have some set of solutions that are especially ideological or original. This is generally true for most councils, the power they have is fairly limited and the close links to the local area trends to populism.
Also, just as many tories in the south are returned with basically no opposition campaign, so it is for labour councillors in many urban areas, even where they are in opposition overall. So its not like they are winning great electoral victories, other than not being crushed by national swing.
As with the old Liberals, local goverenment can sustain an activist base and a party, but don’t expect it to reinvigorate the party all of a sudden of itself.
I’m trying to think of something positive to say, to rally the many local activists who like me waited and waited and waited for the Labour leadership to listen to us, but I unfortunately have to agree with redpesto and thomas. Having lived in a “true blue” area, I also know this is also true for the Tories, their local activists have no say whatsoever.
But wait…is the only voice that local parties have is within their own national party, are they trapped to act. Of course they’re not and they should look around them and even look at themselves. How many of their local members are involved in exciting campaigs in the neighbourhood but can’t feel the need to turn up on a wet Tuesday night to a CLP meeting? Start listening to the community groups, single issue campaigners, the people who rally together to prevent teenage asylum seekers being deported, who clear up sewage on the sea after a spillage. You may not agree with what they are campaigning for (and there a lot of NIMBYs about!) but you may learn a lot
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Mike Killingworth