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Primaries will help restore the electorate’s faith in politics – and the Labour party

An important debate has unexpectedly blossomed for the Labour party this summer. It’s been growing for a while, but the issue of whether Labour should introduce primaries for parliamentary and mayoral candidates has raised some interesting questions about what a progressive vision for politics, politicians and political parties in the future might look like. Initial divisions have not been, despite a few trying to engineer it so, about left versus right, but instead about tribal versus plural. This is not some New Labour ploy to further reduce the power of party members, but a genuine attempt to find ways of tackling the slow but deathly decline of our membership and public engagement in politics.

People are right to ask questions about the potential impact of introducing primaries and worry about the operational specifics. Grasping in desperation for gimmicks from across the pond is not the direction the Labour party should be heading in. But the main arguments raised in opposition to primaries reflect deeper problems which need to be debated and settled in an open and constructive way, otherwise Labour’s future as an inclusive, broad and positive party of the left will be in doubt.

Party strategists have always moaned that internal discussions about party structures are a distraction from the real business of campaigning. But what if there aren’t any campaigners because no one feels a part of a big endeavour anymore? What if we’re campaigning for the wrong things because we’ve forgotten about the public? Looking anew at ways of reigniting the old fire in the belly for seasoned activists and inspiring new Labour supporters to get more involved could help us to win the next election.

Along with reform of policymaking in the party, introducing proportional representation and other steps towards democratic renewal, primaries could be one way of regaining confidence as a party. We think that there are three reasons why progressives in the Labour party should seriously consider campaigning for them. The first is that primaries could increase and strengthen membership, not decimate it as some have posited. A system of registered Labour supporters could provide a ready-made voter ID grid so that activists can concentrate on recruiting members and maintaining support. Given that we think it’s important for party members to retain some control over the shortlist to ensure that candidates reflect Labour values and diversity, there will still be a reason to be a member and registered supporters who want to go a stage further can do so.

The second reason is because primaries could help to broaden Labour’s base of candidates so that they better reflect the public they seek to serve. Two rather contradictory arguments suggest that primaries will result in motherhood-and-apple-pie candidates who lack political acumen or else centrally-imposed careerists with no experience of real life. We expect the best answer to this is that the Labour party suffers from these problems already.
The difference with primaries will be that Labour candidates will have far more of a democratic mandate with thousands of their local population voting for them, than the current situation where on average 280 members determine the outcome. If anything, primaries could help to free candidates from old style top-down central party or trade union patronage as those candidates who are most likely to win will have built up support among the public. Good public speaking skills, charisma and rapport with the public will help. Some of the things, in fact, that the public and commentariat say is lacking in our neutered 21st century politics.

Finally, but most important, primaries signal that our political elites are willing to trust in, and shift power down to, the masses. It’s an oddity that a mechanism which might help to return Labour to its original purpose of representing the citizenry, rather than a cherished few, is so stridently opposed by those who say they speak with the most authentic voice on behalf of the disadvantaged. The reaction of Tribune et al to primaries should ring warning bells. Their solution is more resolutions at party conference – a return to compositing, mandating delegates, union block votes and midnight deals. As an answer to the uphill struggle which faces political parties, we don’t know whether to respond by laughing or crying.

One of the better critiques of New Labour is that it believed in central control too much, both in the state and as a project. Learning lessons from the last 12-plus years requires progressives to let go of political power a little more, trust the public a lot more and build support for our values and policies from the bottom up. It’s only a small start, but introducing primaries for Labour’s London mayoral selections in 2010 would show we’re taking the criticisms seriously. And who knows, it might help to win back the public’s respect and votes at the same time.

Editorial

01 Sep 2009 13:09

 

Comments

• Posted by angela pinter on 10 September 2009, 5:57:25 PM

  Is this a joke? A party which has closed down internal democracy is hardly going to become mor e democratic. 'Trusting the public? It does not even trust its own members. And they are leaving in droves. Together with the voters. When Walter Wolfgang was manhandled by party hired thugs it ws the end of democracy. Face reality. ANd give up gimmicks. And how would candidates for the primary be selected? By the party leadership ' to reflect the diversity of our electorate' (sic) In other words candidates would be imposed and then be voted by the 'broader base'. In any case Labour cannot win in London any longer.