In the first blog in our series of Member’s Thoughts, Joe Cassels writes about where Labour stands after the latest elections…
I’ve said it before. I find politics fascinating and yet abhorrent at the same time. There are a lot of loud people with nasty opinions out there. The media distorts things and has an inherent bias. Party politics distorts stuff too, but with overt bias. The truth is an early casualty.
I’m frustrated by the discussion over the local election results. They were being spun as potentially calamitous for Labour and specifically for Corbyn but in fact they held reasonably steady. Pundits predicted a loss of 150 or so council seats. Labour lost 23 and held all but one of its councils. In the mayoral contests Labour won London and several other cities. It lost 13 seats in the Scottish Parliament and became the third placed party. In Wales it lost one seat and remained the largest party. It was a mixed bag of results. Despite it not being the meltdown the pundits predicted, the media story has become “Corbyn loses seats at a time when he should be winning big”, the argument being that opposition parties win big in mid term local elections and as Labour hasn’t, this is a failure of his leadership. Quite quickly the story is one of meltdown, even though it wasn’t. Meanwhile, Corbyn supporters are spinning this as wild grass roots success because, in the face of a hugely hostile media, losses were minimal and Labour won London. Critics in the party then quickly point out that Khan distanced himself from Corbyn and his success was one of going for the centre and following the New Labour formula.
The reality is neither, and possibly both. The problem is that the commentary and much of the Labour Party is totally ignoring that we no longer live in a binary political system. We used to have three party politics, where the Lib Dems would generally take one or other side. We now have multiple parties being squeezed into a binary system. UKIP won a large number of seats in Wales and in England. The Lib Dems picked up more new councillors than UKIP did. The Greens remained static in England but gained four new seats in Scotland (NB the Scottish Green Party is a separate entity to the Green Party of England and Wales, but they are affiliated). Plaid gained a new seat in Wales. The SNP lost its overall majority in Scotland but remained the largest party by a long way. It’s a complex picture and we really oughtn’t keep on talking in terms of Labour vs Conservative.
Council elections are still held using the outdated first past the post system which really cannot accommodate multi party politics. This is also the system still in place for general elections. It’s showing its weakness now more than ever because it becomes very hard to determine public opinion based on election results. First past the post, or its equally arcane abbreviation FPTP is suited to binary politics, where everything is one of two choices. Labour or Conservative. Black or White. This or that. “Don’t like the government? Well, would you rather have the other lot? Didn’t think so. So put up and shut up.” Even our parliament is arranged by government and opposition. Debates are for or against. You can amend a motion, but then it’s voted upon as yes or no. Nuance, subtlety and complexity are stifled.
If every party other than the governing one is supposedly in opposition, there are five major opposition parties other than Labour. There are also numerous even smaller and more regional parties, plus many independent councillors. So why is so much time spent on talking about whether Labour is failing or indeed storming ahead?
In the mayoral elections and those for police commissioners voters could express a second preference. The regional elections also included a degree of proportionality. Yet the media story (and indeed the debate within Labour) ignored much of this.
I was a Labour Party member in the 1990s but left in 2000 over Education policy. I still feel an affinity for Labour and am very pleased that Sadiq Khan is now London Mayor. I was very upset that Labour didn’t win the 2015 general election, not because I felt the party had the right policies, but because it was much less unpleasant than the Tories. I find the media attacks on Labour upsetting even though I’m not a member and would choose to vote Green.
Since Corbyn’s election as leader the party seems to reflect a lot more of my values, but the infighting is frustrating. We’re told that a party can only win power by being united (by the same media that seems wedded to the two party system) and that aiming for the centre ground is the only way. Even when the centre ground keeps drifting rightwards. I’d been very concerned that all debate had become shades of right wing ideology. Talking about public ownership was almost unthinkable. Any redistribution was stone age thinking. The very idea that we might build council houses was insane. Corbyn seemed to bring these ideas back at a time when I think they’re desperately needed. Yet the media, and much of the parliamentary Labour party disagrees.
There seems to be a disconnect between the majority of the Labour party membership and its MPs. The membership wants traditional Labour policies that were ditched with Blair. The MPs want to win elections and keep their jobs. They would argue that you can’t do anything if you don’t have power, so you need to do whatever’s necessary to gain power. But if you have to ditch everything you want to achieve in order to get into power what’s the point? If you can’t make the changes to protect what’s dear to you, why bother? Does the choice really have to be Tory nastiness or much the same thing, only delivered by “nicer” people?
The infighting, and the media obsession with reporting it, obscures any realistic chance of discussing the real need to tackle inequality. We’re not talking about protecting public services or looking after vulnerable members of society. Basically we let the Tories do what they want while concentrating on an irrelevant soap opera instead of dealing with policies.
I know that there are Labour members who are very concerned about Corbyn who feel that their voices are ignored within the party. I very much like what Corbyn says, but I worry that these members might have a point. Is there still unacceptable centralised control in the party that should have been eradicated when Blair and Brown left? If there’s no room for dissent and discussion then things haven’t moved on.
My biggest concern about Labour is that as a party I’m not sure it knows what it stands for any more. Is it for sick and disabled people? Or people in jobs who face tough pay and conditions? Is it for public services? Does it support business? Does it stand for environmental protection? Or is it in hock to big business and corporations? I’d like to believe that where the Conservatives are the party of self interest, Labour is for promoting a society that cares for its members. I don’t know though. I see plenty of Labour MPs (and probably others in positions of power) who seem to be in it as career politicians and not to make the difference that their ideology demands. In short I see little conviction from most of the PLP.
Meanwhile, we have other opposition parties that slowly increase their standings. Yet they have little influence in government. The media treats them like outsiders and cranks to stifle their voices. The main voting system locks them out. And while the focus is on reporting divisions within Labour rather than on policy, there’s little debate on issues in the media at all.
It feels to me like we have a ruling class, made up of business leaders who remain shady and behind the scenes, their lackeys in the media and in parliament alongside a government who believe that they were born to rule. It’s not a democracy. It’s a parody of democracy. Meanwhile, we have to accept the will of our overlords. Isn’t it time this changed? Isn’t it time for some honest reporting? Shouldn’t Labour MPs focus on criticising the government rather than their own party? Do they even care about the NHS, BBC, Education, and other public services? It seems not. They fight while the people suffer. They fiddle while Rome burns.
Most councils are strapped for cash thanks to central government policy. They have little room for manoeuvre regardless of what party is in control. The elections are only really reported as a glorified opinion poll on the national parties. The real local issues that they deal with are of little interest to the press. The results of this poll are spun anyway so they make little sense to anyone outside the political bubble. For everyone else its business as usual.
So, in conclusion, Labour eh?
You can find Joe Cassel’s full blog here: http://www.joecassels.co.uk/