Last Saturday, Wycombe Conservatives selected the excellent Steve Baker as their general election candidate at a meeting attended by local Association members only.
Perhaps this moves me to explain why Conservatives should look at open caucuses, and even open primaries, with a sceptical eye.
My line of thinking is as follows:
- In the British political tradition, the Executive and Legislature overlap. So if the Party can form a government, some Conservative candidates, after election to the Commons, become Ministers, and some don’t. Let’s call the first group Future Ministers and the second Local Champions.
- The gifts required of Future Ministers and Local Champions diverge. Both need energy, enthusiasm, commitment - and come in all shapes and sizes. But effective Local Champions must have a deep affection for their constituency and be diligent and determined on behalf of their constituents: these are basic requirements. Efficient Ministers must be able to manage and negotiate a Department, colleagues, interest groups and voters in such a way as to achieve political goals: this calls for a different set of skills.
- Many Commons Ministers are effective Local Champions. But – crucially – a smaller proportion of Local Champions are efficient or future Ministers. Some simply don’t have the skills and gifts required.
- I agree with those who argue that open caucuses (meetings which voters have to attend in order to participate in a candidate selection) are a poor substitute for open primaries (the selection of candidates by postal ballot). Recent experience suggests that if non-Association members are given a say in the selection of Conservative candidates, then open primaries will obtain a higher turnout. So let’s narrow down the method of selecting Conservative candidates to a choice: Association selection versus Open Primary selection.
- Many Associations try to select Future Ministers (who, as I say are often effective Local Champions). Open Primaries, by their very nature, will tend to select Local Champions (of which, as I say, a smaller proportion will be efficient Ministers).
- In the long-term and perhaps the medium term, therefore, a universal system of selection by Open Primary would produce fewer efficient Ministers.
To me, none of these objections to a universal system of Open Primaries are decisive. They might be outweighed if such a system produced more good than harm. As others have suggested, a system of universal Open Primaries would be likely to produce more effective Local Champions than Association Selection. Such champions would therefore be better than present MPs at holding the Executive to account and reflect more faithfully the general political culture of their constituencies – but, significantly, offer a smaller pool of future Ministerial talent.
In summary, a system of universal Open Primaries would surely lead, sooner or later, to a radical destination – namely, a constitutional settlement in which the Executive and Legislature are separated.
Under such a division, MPs would almost certainly become full-time, state-salaried Local Champions – as the Kelly Report may imply. And all Ministers – let’s call them “Outside Ministers” - would be directly appointed by the Prime Minister from outside Parliament altogether. There are already portents of such startling change. Think of Gordon Brown’s GOATs; or of John Major and Douglas Hurd calling recently for “outside talent” to be brought to the dispatch box; or even of Jacqui Smith complaining that she should have been “better trained” before becoming Home Secretary.
Both Local Champions and Outside Ministers would of course operate from within the framework of a written constitution – a dramatic break with the British political tradition. But such a transformation, while not necessarily un-Conservative, would certainly be un-Tory – and the Tory tradition matters. In any event, there are other ways of restoring and reviving the way we’re governed – and cutting the Executive down to size at the same time. The Party’s already set out quite a lot of them – and I want to return to the subject in due course.
In the meantime, I hope I’ve explained why Open Primaries should be looked on not with a hostile eye…but with a sceptical one. Which may leave one thinking that Association selection, which produced Steve last Saturday, has quite a lot to be said for it.