I recently heard a recording of Denis Healey saying that he thought that politicians who were only interested in politics made bad politicians. He pitied people who had no life outside politics and said that his real life had always been in the arts. There is a story that I have heard that in Norway they select their local politicians in the same way as we select people for jury service. I don't know if this is just another, 'I heard it from a man in the pub' story, but, in my experience, there is certainly something to be said for this idea. The serious but largely mundane business of government is something that is far too important to be left to people who think they want to do it. Far better, perhaps, to pick a random selection of ordinary people who would much rather be elsewhere doing something else, present them with the facts and get them to make a decision, the only proviso being that it had to satisfy the 'Welfare of the People above all' test.
The Labour Party prides itself on being far more diverse and reflective of the communities it represents than the Tory Party. A cursory glance at the 53 councillors that make up Lewisham Council's Labour Group would confirm that we have a good mix of women, people from ethnic minorities and people from the LGTB community. However, there are very few people under 35, who have children of school age, or work in the private sector, for example. Ben Judah, in his recently published book on London, makes the point that 55% of Londoners are not white British, nearly 40% were born abroad and 5% are living here illegally. I think in Lewisham, and, I suspect, everywhere else, Labour is far less representative of the community it serves than it thinks. Can we really be confident that we are governing in the best interests of the people when our life experience are so different from theirs?
This state of affairs wouldn't be quite so bad if we were doing something about it. Sadly, we seem to be making matters worse. Rather than encouraging Councillors and Labour members to be active in their communities, we are making more and more demands on their time. I have noticed this in the 20 years that I have been a Labour Party member. When I was approached to be a candidate in the local elections, the fact that I wouldn't have to do too much if I didn't want to if successful, was put to me as a selling point. Since then everything has become more corporate and professional. And a good thing too in many ways. However, I think things have gone too far.
The Labour Party is now on a constant war footing. We are continually campaigning and canvassing throughout the year. No sooner had we finished campaigning for our own local elections in 2014, then it seems that we were gearing up for the General Election in 2015. This was swiftly followed by the campaign to elect the new leader and deputy leader of the party, then the campaign to select the Labour candidate for the London Mayoral Elections and now the London Mayoral campaign itself. It's not much of an exaggeration to say that you could spend every night of the week and every weekend at some kind of Labour Party meeting, or out campaigning, or at a Labour Party Fundraiser of some description. And the sad fact is that if you don't, you have little chance of advancing up the greasy pole. The sheer effort, time and commitment required to become a Labour candidate in some election or other, with the exception of Council elections in some cases, is now so great, that if you were a normal person with a normal life outside politics when you started, you won't be by the time you have become successful. Labour politics is not something that can be pursued alongside other interests, not to mention family commitments. Perhaps it was ever thus. Clearly, Denis Healey thought and acted otherwise.
Labour recognises that it is on a quest for relevance in the eyes of ordinary people. It seeks the holy grail of our age, Authenticity, as it tries to come up with a plan to win in 2020. Jeremy Corbyn's massive victory in the leadership election and the huge increase in Party membership that accompanied it, are seen by many as evidence of Labour's reconnection with the people. Labour's subsequent steady decline in the opinion polls tells another story. My fear is that if Labour does manage to find leaders with the common touch, people who can convince voters in constituencies that we need to win in order to form a Government, to vote Labour, this will have to be by luck rather than design.
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