Writing yesterday’s blog reminded me of when I joined the Labour Party. My experiences are not unlike those described by John O’Farrell in his book “Things can Only Get Better”.
At the time the local party was in a bitter internal battle over the reselection of local MP and Labour Whip, Michael Cocks.
I was 17 and involved in running a local youth council which was campaigning on youth homeless and unemployment. I got involved in the youth council a year earlier through the Catholic Youth Club I attended and which sent me as a delegate to a meeting to set up the youth council. I had planned to sit in the back; this was hard when only 3 people turned up, one of them heavily pregnant and two youth workers.
The campaigning work had involved meeting local councilors and the MP. We had tried to stand a candidate in a council by-election but then you had to be over 21 and we didn’t have anyone old enough. The election was the day before my 18th birthday so I couldn’t even take part in our campaign to spoil my paper in protest at 18 year olds being unable to stand and vote for themselves.
I decided to join the Labour Party. My dad a traditional Labour supporter told me that if I ever joined a political party he would kick me out the house as they were all dishonest and would ‘stab you in the back’.
I joined Bishopsworth Branch Labour Party in April 1982. I should say I was allowed to join. The Branch Secretary liked to keep the membership at 51. 50 members gave you 4 votes at the constituency meetings, 51 gave you 6 so there was no need for more after you reached that magic figure. Some years later when I was membership secretary I found several members who didn’t even know that they were because that nice Mr Cocks actually paid their subscriptions and filled in the forms.
I only went to one Bishopsworth branch meeting before moving to Newcastle for university. That meeting was a revelation. Apart from a couple of young socialists and me the members were largely retired. Two women, one tiny, the other enormous swapped recipes during the meeting and hissed every time Tony Benn’s name was mentioned. I could imagine them sitting at the front row near the Guillotine in the Terror. The meeting was run by a group of men who would have looked at ease in the Politburo. One person was refused membership because he had green hair.
Of course this was the time when Labour was supposedly in the grip of the left. Michael Cocks survived the boundary changes and the reselection and Labour went into the following general election fighting not just Margaret Thatcher and the Tories but also a large number of their own members who had formed the SDP. Those were the days.
Footnote 1: I went on my first canvassing session in April that year. One of the then Labour Councillors said it was a shame I was going away to university as she could give me elocution lessons and I might “make something of your life”.
I like this.
Bristol Labour Party gossip from the 1980s. Can we have more?
Go on, give us your take on the Cocks/Primarolo saga. It’s more-or-less be the first draft of history!
good read. The sad thing about political parties is how closed they can become. Getting people engaged is just as hard though I think most parties are more welcoming to new people.
So have you started gearing up for next years election?
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The Bishopsworth Branch Secretary? Good old Bernard. 😀 A force to be reckoned with
“when I was membership secretary I found several members who didn’t even know that they were because that nice Mr Cocks actually paid their subscriptions and filled in the forms.”
allegedly…..obviously I couldn’t possibly comment.
In my local branch we recently discovered that the membership had lapsed for one Mr Aneurin Bevan.
A mere technicality, he was quickly re-admitted 🙂
We did do the honest thing and track him down and make it legit though.
This is actually true – it’s happened in 2012. I understand the man is a distant relative of his name-sake
When in Newcastle I canvassed the real T Dan Smith