WHOOSH! No sooner has the Labour Party suffered a devastating and unexpected election knockout than its off on what it does best; having an internal election for Leader. Not, you understand that it is good at choosing the right leader very often but it thrills to the electoral process where a Labour candidate is bound to win.
An elected Mayor for Greater Manchester is a democratic bonus. A recognition that centralism has failed.
This was never more evident than at the first meeting of Labour MPs in the House of Commons after the General Election. The only item for serious discussion was the timetable for the Leader’s Election.
The necessary and difficult post-mortem - as well as Ed Miliband - were absent. A post-mortem would have certainly exposed the disfunctionality around the Leader’s office, we may even have got to know which member of the Shadow Cabinet resigned on Election Day, as reported in The Spectator.
Policy options, tactical and strategic mistakes could have been explored. Ed Miliband’s decision to abdicate responsibility for leading this discussion was the lowest point of his dismal five years in office.
This discussion should have been the fertile ground on which the Leadership debate could take place.
My contribution to such a debate would have been along the following lines, “Quite simply we have lost the will to win. Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband were two Leaders who were tolerated and kept in office when we knew they were unelectable. This is an inexcusable indulgence for which many of our supporters will pay a high price.
“It appears as if we have four candidates for the job. Two, Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham will be contaminated in the public eye by their time in office and by voting for the Iraq War. Liz Kendall has the opposite problem of inexperience. For the first time in my life I’m a genuine floating voter.
“Whomsoever is elected must not see it as a five year contract but one renewable on a yearly basis. They must show they can communicate and persuade people from Blackpool North to Basildon of our case but also listen and respond in more than a trivial way to their concerns from immigration to education. If they can’t they must go. If we are not ruthless we risk repeating our mistakes and being out of office for a generation.”
More open questioning of the Leader not less should be the order of the day. The Acting Leader of the Labour Party Harriett Harman disagrees, she believes that Labour MPs should be campaigners not commentators. She is right on campaigning, wrong on wanting to prohibit public criticism. The discipline that led to Labour MPs keeping quiet about Ed Miliband’s failures injured democracy as well as his own party.
Labour’s Leadership race is for the future but what does five more years of pure unrestrained Tory Government mean for Manchester? For public sector workers and those who receive benefits this is a disaster.
This is more demand for food banks and closure notices on libraries and swimming pools
Labour Councils have an unenviable task but as always will try and protect the core of public services so when the Conservatives are thrown out of office there is something left to improve and expand.
It might seem otherwise but I am not somebody who thinks every policy of other parties should be dismissed because of their origin. Fracking and HS2 are likely to get an easier ride under this Government and that is to be welcomed. Energy, security and jobs should follow. But the brightest spot on the horizon is George Osborne’s conversion to the city region agenda and devolution formulated by Labour’s Andrew Adonis and the Conservative Party’s Lord Heseltine.
An elected Mayor for Greater Manchester is a democratic bonus. A recognition that centralism has failed. Localism will have to seize its opportunity. There are risks but potentially huge rewards.
In health, making success of social care could bring financial as well as health benefits. Similarly taking control of bus fares and routes will stop the parasitic bus companies gaining public sector grants and will inevitably lead to improved public transport.
The aftermath of the General Election needs to see the Labour Party get its act together and Labour Councils to grasp the opportunities presented by devolution to advance democracy and defend the most vulnerable. It’s going to be tough but unlike Ed Miliband we can’t leave the political arena.
Graham StringerGraham Stringer is a regular columnist for Manchester Confidential. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Blackley and Broughton with a majority of 22,982 after the 2015 election, up from 12,303 in 2010.
He was elected to Parliament in 1997 for the now abolished constituency of Manchester Blackley. Prior to this he was the Leader of Manchester City Council from 1984-1996. He is one of the few MPs to have science experience, as a professional analytical chemist. He is a member of The Science and Technology Committee at Westminster.
