Ed Miliband vows to 'refound' the Labour Party by setting up voter capture scheme, people pay a £1 and they get say on policy, Labour Party con trick!

Dear All

The Labour Party is a dying party; people are leaving it in droves.

Why, what is the reason?

Simple, it doesn’t represent the people anymore, it is a clique.

Not just any ordinary clique but a middle class clique.

When Wendy Alexander stepped down, she wasn’t replaced by a man of the people.

No one from the area was good enough.

Now, Ed Miliband is trying a con trick in an effort to halt declining membership.

He wants to give the public a formal role in policy formation and allow them to become "registered supporters" free of charge.

It is a vote capture scheme.

By allowing people to comment, he thinks they will believe they have a say in policy, but having a say doesn’t mean they will have the final say!

So, we get the "Refounding Labour" project, headed by shadow cabinet member Peter Hain who wants to transform Labour into a more outward-looking organisation.

It isn’t and the ‘project’ won’t achieve this, Labour has abandoned its roots in favour of big business.

Hain’s pitch:

"It is imperative we use this period of Opposition to leapfrog the other parties by refounding our own, so that Labour emerges refreshed and reinvigorated”.

And he says that unless changes are made Labour's future and that many local parties are moribund.

He says activists feel disengaged and disillusioned; the membership is elderly, in some areas of the country the party "barely functions".

This isn’t just a Labour problem, it is common with other parties, politics is in a nut; ordinary people may use their vote come election time but who wants to work for political parties week in week out doing menial work?

If people want to be ‘postmen’ they can join the Post Office and get paid for it.

Hain suggestion is that Labour should consider allowing registered supporters to join the party without becoming full members.

Individuals would be able to become a ‘supporter’ and have a say in leadership elections and policy for just £1.

Previously, I proposed that my political party open up certain branch meeting to the public.
In 2009!

It is now 2011.

But then I was always ahead of my time when it comes to ideas.

Political branch meeting are tedious with generally nothing of interested being said.

Hain added:

"Just as politics has become more global it has also become more local. So what matters more than ever is how Labour engages with people in their neighbourhoods on local issues."

Effectively he is running with George Laird’s idea of open politics.

So, what must a political branch do?

It must campaign on local issues.

It must campaign for local people.

It must campaign for local organisations.

It must have a political branch website where members can submit articles.

It must adopt multi media techniques.

It must offer educational opportunities to the many instead of the few.

In short it must adopt George Laird type thinking.

Britain has about 1.5% of people saying they belonged to a political party in 2001.

The other 98.5% is up for grabs.

But that means political parties need to stop talking at people and talk with them.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University