In the introduction to “A 21st Century Party” (Michael Howard’s master plan for what is described as the “reform” of the Conservative Party), the current Chairman, Francis Maude, opines that “it is absolutely vital that we do not squander the unity, harmony and dynamism that we mobilised in recent months.”
How unfortunate, then, that the presentation of the master plan to Conservative MPs on Tuesday night should have done just that. The reception was hostile, to say the least, and the proposals are, if not dead in the water, then wearing concrete Wellingtons and sinking fast.
What went wrong? It had been thought that most MPs would welcome the chance to regain their exclusive right to choose their leader. That may well be the majority view, but what they hated was the sheer arrogance with which the proposals were presented. Consider the following passage, also from the document’s introduction:
“Eight years ago we suffered a devastating defeat. Four years ago we were roundly defeated once more. This year we made progress, welcome progress that gives us a real platform on which to build.”
Actually the progress from 1997 to 2001 was greater than from 2001 to 2005: an increase of one-and-a-half percent in the popular vote compared to just half a percent. The extra seats were like a transfusion to a man bleeding to death, but were the result of some excellent local campaigns and the vagaries of the electoral system. This wasn’t Howard’s victory. Indeed, on a national scale it wasn’t any sort of victory at all.
That is why Michael Howard had no choice but to resign – just as William Hague had no choice four years earlier. But while Hague went on to conduct a low key caretaker leadership of the party and was gone by September, Howard looks set to hold out till December and has decided to redesign the party from top to bottom before he goes. Astonishingly, one of the justifications for this overhaul is that “the current system is expensive and protracted, causing maximum uncertainty and disruption.”
This is nonsense. The current rules would have allowed for a new leader by the summer holidays (remember the 2001 election was held in June not May), but now we won’t have a new leader until Christmas – assuming, that is, that the uncertainty and disruption surrounding the rule changes won’t delay things even further.
That is not to say the Party doesn’t need reforming. Quite clearly it does. But this is the job for a new leader with a democratic mandate. Oh yes, the D-word. From a historical perspective, the Conservative Party has done well out of democracy. This is as it should be – after all we practically invented the thing. But it seems our own members can’t be trusted to choose their own leader. That’s odd, because the people that it seems can be trusted – the MPs – are themselves chosen by the, er, members.
Unless, that is, the members lose the right to choose their local candidates too. That seems to be another part of the Howard master plan. Several pages of the document are devoted to a list of local party rights and responsibilities. Strangely, there is no mention of the right of local parties to choose candidates, this is dealt with later in a section of chilling prose that Orwell and Kafka would have fought like dogs for:
“We propose to delete all the rules concerning the selection of candidates... and replace them with the simple rule stating that local parties will abide by the guidelines for selecting candidates as published by the Board.”
We are then assured that these guidelines will reflect existing practice, but the very next sentence gives the game away: “Simplifying the Constitution in this way will allow us to adapt our candidate selection procedures without having to amend the Constitution.”
So there you have it: The MPs choose the leadership and the leadership choose the MPs – a closed circle of near geometrical perfection and just about all that is needed to deliver our party into the hands of a self-perpetuating clique.
Actually, the quote about making progress this time is, I think, a reasonable one. We did after all, put on 400,000 votes this time round, and gained 33 seats, compared to losing votes overall in 2001, and gaining just one seat. And this despite losing some support to minor parties like UKIP, BNP, Veritas, and the Green Party.
But I share your doubts about the document, and the way in which it was presented. How about this juicy quote "Simplifying the Constitution ... will enable us to adapt our selection procedures without amending the Consitution" ie the centre can adopt any form of shortlisting it likes without reference to the wider party.
I note also that one will only be allowed to form a local party if one employs an agent. That would bring all but the richest associations under the control of Central Office.
Apparently, MPs were told on Tuesday night that it was the grassroots who were pressing for these changes, as a quid pro quo for giving up the right to elect the leader!!
Posted by: Sean Fear | 26 May 2005 at 10:57
This whole squalid farce reminds me of the line in "1066 and All That" about trial by jury in Magna Carta: Barons shall be tried by Other Barons who will Understand.
Posted by: Michael McGowan | 26 May 2005 at 13:04
It is not necessary for the Conservative leader to be attractive to the liberal left, or to be acceptable to the liberal left media, as the argument coming from the that same media, would have us belive, it is necessary that the parliamentary conservatives tap into the mainstream of conservative Britian and from that base of solid support, build a consensus for a politically radical change in the country.
The changes to the voting procedure for the leader brought in by Mr Hague made the conservative party democratic, this is the way forward ,we do not need yet one more party standing for government of this country that has an inbuilt resistance to the influence of ordinary people.
The people of this country are crying out for a truly democratic leadership after decades of being ignored by politicians of all parties.
The EU is at the base of the Conservative problems, before choosing a leader this must be brought to a conclusion one way or the other. In fact Mr Hague did hold a referendum in the party to sort out the problem of the internal struggle over the EU, but the memberships overwhelming choice has been cast aside in an attempt to present a supposedly winning formula in the eyes of the media. As we have just witnessed this winning formula did not win an increase in the vote. Now the parliamentary party is attempting to reverse the advances in democracy within the party, claiming that Mr Duncan Smith was unpopular, he may have been, with certain parts of the party and the media, but he brought the party from around twenty points behind to just level pegging when the parliamentary party got rid of him in favour of Mr Howard, who only just managed to retain that level of support throughout a very bad period for the government.
It would be a mistake for the party to belive they won seats at the election, they did not, the Labour party and Blair in particular lost them, there was no great surge of support for conservatives policies, because there were no conservative policies.
Something that has struck me strongly in recent years is that the Conservative party seems afraid of the media generally and the BBC in particular, if that organisation cannot be reformed quickly, then one conservative policy that would gain a lot of support, should be to clearly state that it will be broken up and privatised, we do not need a centre left state broadcasting company, if nothing else this will bring home to the BBC that its days of dictating policy is over, and will hopefully put some backbone into conservative spokespeople when handling the media.
Posted by: Ken | 31 May 2005 at 14:54
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Posted by: bbn | 14 November 2006 at 12:48