You are in the
company of
Roger Warren Evans
Roger Warren Evans
|
|
You are in the
company of
Roger Warren Evans |
|
| Part of www.LivePolitics.net < Back to Home Page |
NewLiving Diary Index
|
item0059C 894, 895 894 25 December 2003
Will political This is no clever
2004 New
Year brain-teaser. I am
...for the last 40 years, I share Jackie Ashley's conclusion -
It was not until after WW2, in January 1918, that Labour politicians took any steps to form a "Party in the country", as they faced the task of mobilising electoral support among a much wider electorate, and it became clear that women would be enfranchised (1919). That was when "Constituency Labour Parties" were invented, modelled on TU and Fabian Society local branches - principally to act as vote-gathering machines, in support of the Parliamentary party. The Labour Party as we know it was conjured into existence by the parliamentary party, as a means of mobilising electoral support. That's the history.
That old reasoning is no longer compelling. Nor do I argue for the retention of political parties for those same "old" reasons. I would find it very easy to believe that Blair was scheming to weaken and emasculate the Labour Party, as an embarrassment and an inconvenience - everything that he has done suggests that hidden game-plan. Even his current much-vaunted "Big Conversation" is an invitation extended to all citizens, without according any special access to members of the Labour Party - they must take their place, like everyone else, in the cap-doffing queue. Elections are now won and lost on the Government's current policy and performance, on national funding, on the command of media skills and connections, on the style and competence of key Cabinet office-holders. And those trends are likely to continue.- the argument for political parties is now a different one. It is that parties (irrespective of their origins) have become part of the institutional structure of a modern democracy, attracting those with a serious interest in public affairs and in the organisation of their society. Public understanding is advanced by the operation of parties and other forms of political association: they provide a "readable structure" for matters which would otherwise be difficult to apprehend - like religion and sport and hobbies, they are part of the institutional of modern society, facilitating social intercourse and political debate. That is why I will continue to work for their survival . But our parties must be allowed to escape from their origins in the smoke-filled rooms of electoral manipulation. They must become great, open, fora for public debate, engaging and stimulating public interest in politics. That is why I advocate a new relationship, within the Labour Party, between the professional salariat and the Party in the Country.
What do you think about the death of political parties? Drop me a line
25 December 2003 So this is Christmas
Christmas Day has taken on, for me, a new significance. Because it was on Christmas Day 2001 that I posted my very first weblog. Life has not been the same since. In looking back two years, I do seem to be a bit predictable, a bit dull, a bit unoriginal. That’s because my first three 2001 topics remain high on my agenda today, without my having made any obvious breakthrough with any of them…
Am I making any progress? I must leave that festive judgment to you. But let me make my case. These were my first causes celebres. And although progress is slow, I refuse to believe that they are lost causes. 
Rail to Road:
Drugs Legalisation:
The awful stain of "Prohibition" continues to disfigure and distort our civilisation,
and Labour has not had the courage to break free of traditional prejudices
and taboos. That remains for me a source of disappointment, as does
Labour’s continuing failure to give due weight to human rights and personal
freedoms. But this is a cause to which increasing millions will become
committed over the coming years (check out The Angel Declaration) – and the
cause remains for me a great beacon of sanity and humanity.
“Multiple Differential Uncertainty” – my “big” thesis written in 1994, may
seem (I admit it…) heavy going. But it is proving a good guide to
the current world, and the ravages of 11 September 2001 in New York.
Humankind, I argue, is peculiarly adept at the management of uncertainty,
for that is a normal requirement of ordinary human survival. Our very
intelligence, sharpened by education, generates untold uncertainties, with
resulting anxieties. The more we understand, the more exposed we are to the
anxiety of uncertainty. Yet man as a species has developed a whole raft of
counter-measures, in true Darwinian fashion, which enable life to go on, the
young to be conceived and matured to adulthood, Christmases to be
celebrated, mornings faced, and a good night’s sleep to be enjoyed by all.
These counter-measures ensure that we are not crippled by uncertainty. I
confess I find this world-view even more convincing that when I first
conceived it, in the early 1990s.
So all is not doom and gloom. Although my ambitions are still unrealised, I can salvage enough to raise the spirit, and “carry on campaigning”!
|
|
|
| Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT
NOTICE
|
