Morning:
3°c
Something is stirring in the British electorate. The rumble may have been heard in the shires this week, with the selection of Sarah Wollaston as Conservative candidate in Totnes.
But before too long, I believe the clamour for a more open and democratic way of selecting our politicians will sweep into London. We will see changes to how we select our councillors, MPs and — I hope — how we choose the next Mayor of London.
The experiment in Totnes, in which the public were given a chance to vote for the Tory candidate for the next general election, showed that US-style “open primaries” can help reconnect people to politics. The high turnout showed that people want to move away from backroom deals and male-dominated selections based on old-boys' networks and time served. Full marks to the Totnes Tories for being brave enough to make it happen.
It's time we saw the same in London, in all parties. A stark lesson of the last Mayoral contest was the growing polarisation of politics between inner London and the outer suburbs. The result demonstrated how far Labour in London struggled to connect with those parts of the electorate that weren't seen as “traditionally Labour”.
The London mayoralty is the second-most-powerful elected office in the land, with an annual budget of over £3 billion. It has the largest personal executive mandate in Western Europe outside of the French presidency. We can no longer have handfuls of people in half-empty rooms, on a single evening 10 months before the election, selecting a candidate from a list drawn up by party officials or trade union chiefs. Where is the opportunity for ordinary people to influence that?
At the next Mayoral election, Labour needs a candidate selected through an open contest. And this should be more than be a re-run of the primary that selected Boris, with its premium-rate phone numbers and low participation. Our candidate must involve and inspire everyone — from the Dagenham cabbie to the Latin American stallholder in Elephant and Castle; someone who speaks to the concerns of the Redbridge commuter and the pensioners of Tottenham. Primaries offer a chance to change not just the mechanism of selection, but the whole way we frame the political debate.
Imagine if the parties held a primary election in every London borough. Candidates would have to campaign across the capital, building momentum, borough by borough, community by community. No longer could politicians get away with just campaigning in their heartlands. No longer would Labour voters in Hillingdon or Havering feel ignored by those at the top, since their votes would count for just as much as a Labour voter in Hackney. And yes, it would work the other way round, too, with Tory voters of Newham having their say in their selection.
Such a process would engage Londoners, civil society, and the blogosphere in a way unseen so far in city-wide elections. The primaries in the US challenged Obama, McCain and Clinton to discuss real politics early on, strengthening both the candidates and their policy platforms. By contrast, too much of what we saw over here in 2008 felt artificial, created just for the campaign.
Over the last six months I've spent time visiting constituencies, talking to grassroots Labour Party members from across London and they are telling me that “politics as usual” just won't cut it. They are right. I'm sure it's the same for my Tory and Lib-Dem colleagues.
In a Labour meeting in south west London last month — not a typical Labour area — there was a real appetite to be listened to and involved in the big questions about London's future. The question now is: who will be brave enough to extend the invitation?
Reader views (5)
Nulabour hypocracy speaks. So the Mayoral election wasn't fair because we couldn't select the candidates eh?
Before we have the chance to select election candidates, what about a chance to vote on immigration and the destruction of our culture, or the Lisbon Treaty, or the unsustainable benefits culture, or the illegal wars, or the etc, etc,etc,......
We've had enough of Nulabour, the lies, the deceit and the incompetence, get back into hiding and hold your tounge Lammy.
- Eric, London
Funny how Mr Lammy didn't complain when Red Ken was elected twice but now London has the temerity to elect a conservative, New Labour start crying foul; how typical!
- Simon Fraser, London, UK
Unfortunately this will not solve the main problem - that the mayoral elections are fixed in favour of the "main" parties. A carefully honed list of hack politicians chosen by those at the top of the major parties and foisted onto a bemused electorate for subsequent contest will not satisfy the growing distaste for the political class. Would Mr Lammy comment on the situation where a "minor" party standing is barred by the spending rules from even sending one leaflet to every voter in the capital (while the "main" parties get a barrage of tedious but daily coverage)? Or that state radio and tv guidelines bar the "minor" parties from anything more than carefully timed walk-on parts (down to the actual second of equality between them). When I was a candidate for Mayor in 2000, I was actually told that "it would not be democratic" for me to be given coverage, because it "would confuse people if they thought there was anything other than the four 'main' candidates"! This is a call to pretend the politicians are listening - do not be fooled by the Hobson's Choice. It will lead to even lower turnouts and even greater disaffection.
- Damian Hockney, London, UK
DAVID LAMMY for next MAYOR OF LONDON
- Jude John Lobo, SURREY
Maybe we could have this revolution on Bastille day in memory of those dictators Ceaucescu and Henry viii
- R.Taylor, london
