One of the most radical, and effective, ways to improve people’s lives
Ed Davey’s book, The Battle for Liberal Britain, has the following chapter from Cllr Lisa Smart, my former Federal Board colleague and hopefully future MP. As it’s about the importance of local campaigning, this month is a good one to reproduce it with her kind permission.
Community Politics certainly isn’t new but, after decades of seeing it in action, it’s still one of the most radical, liberal ideas having impact on people’s lives today.
In The Theory and Practice of Community Politics published as an ALC Campaign Booklet in August 1980, Bernard Greaves and Gordon Lishman set out what Community Politics was and, importantly, what it wasn’t: “Community Politics is not a technique for the winning of local government elections.”
If you haven’t read the pamphlet, it’s well written and accessible. Many readers will be able to work their way through it in an enjoyable hour or two. Some of the references will be rather lost on today’s readers (talk of the Red Guard leadership of the Young Liberals, for example)and it will not go unnoticed that of the twelve additional people mentioned as contributing to the work in one way or another, all twelve were men. But the ideas and the examples used to illustrate them are as relevant today as they were over 40 years ago when Gordon and Bernard committed them to paper.
Community Politics in its purest sense is about making sure communities have the power to do things for themselves.
And that’s why, when other parties try to copy it, the lack of authenticity shines through. Conservatives naturally find themselves wanting to do things *to* communities and Labour want to do things *for* communities because they both think they know best. Liberals want to get rid of the barriers that are stopping people from doing things for themselves.
Some liberals (and Liberal Democrats) will get to Community Politics by instinct, others will need to think their way there. Some, like me, will be lucky enough to learn from committed and experienced practitioners who’ve been at it for years.
When I was first elected to Stockport Council, I took over from Hazel Lees, who was retiring after over 20 years in the role. At the time, Hazel was the only Lib Dem councillor for the ward and for my first year so was I – as an aside, I am now one of a team of three Lib Dems for Bredbury Green and Romiley and highly recommend getting more Lib Dems elected!
Learning from Hazel’s example, I was able to feel the warmth families had towards some play equipment on a park, because they had raised the extra money themselves. It hadn’t just arrived one day from “the council” because of a decision taken in a wood panelled room in a distant town hall – and dare I say if it had been left to the town hall it may not have arrived. Similarly, a local group set up to remember the men named on the local war memorial on the centenary of the end of the first world war was owned by the community because it was set up, run and flourished as part of the community.
This group, Romiley Remembers, came about when one of the residents in the ward Hazel represented, Angie, went to her one day to ask for help setting up a group to commemorate the lives of the fallen. Angie told me later that she had expected Hazel either to ignore her or take over the idea and do it herself. Instead, Hazel supported Angie to develop and deliver the idea, to huge success. Cut to a few years later and Cllr Angie Clark is now my ward colleague, and a better example of a community politician would be hard to find.
Community Politics cannot be seen just as a tool to win elections, although when done well it will often help to do just that. Time and again, communities report that they don’t feel like anyone is listening to them. From the terraces of Sunderland to the gravel driveways of Chesham and Amersham, Lib Dem campaigners report hearing the repeated refrain of, “You’re the first politician to ever knock on my door”.
Any political campaign that listens to people who feel ignored is off to a very good start. Such campaigns may well see success in the first burst of activity. But unless that is sustained over time, and the initial listening leads to action and a more empowered community, then the same grumbles from the community will be justified in due course.
For some, Community Politics has morphed over time into customer service politics with elected members doing things diligently for their residents, and, of course, posing for photos with thumbs up on lots of pretty leaflets. This fundamentally undersells what Community Politics is. Yes, getting stuff done is an important part of the role of a local councillor but it is getting stuff done with the community, not for it.
Whatever the theory of conservatism or socialism or nationalism relating to communities having more power and more agency, the practical action we see in councils not run by Liberal Democrats is that power is brought into the centre time and again. In practice, the socialism that is delivered focuses on doing things to communities (because the centre has “THE ANSWER”) and doesn’t reflect the differences between and within communities. It can be done sincerely and be well intentioned but the starting premise is wrong. And this is why liberals can do Community Politics but those of other political persuasions might try to copy it but struggle to deliver it with authenticity.
Community Politics shouldn’t be the preserve of just a few communities. If we want our communities to be empowered, then it isn’t up to us to herd voters from one pen to another as though they were sheep. Pre-election deals struck between parties to stand down for one another is the opposite of Community Politics. It takes choice and power away from voters and keep it with the politicians.
Quite rightly, there’s no such thing as our voters who will compliantly put their cross in the box we prefer. Pre-election pacts are an attempt at finding a simple answer to a series of complex questions and there’s a question for those considering them as to whether allowing a weaker opponent a foothold giving them credibility and strength is a wise decision for the long term.
It’s an entirely different matter, of course, to decide where to focus campaigning effort to have the most impact and to target resources to get the best representation possible. By always standing a candidate, the choice and power remains with the voters which is exactly where it should be.
Communities have shifted over time. For some non-geographic groups they consider themselves to be far more part of a community than any location-based community could ever be. Whether it’s the community of chess players, of sewing machine collectors, of those caring for a loved one, of campaigners for proportional representation or followers of a particular faith, Community Politics is still relevant and the liberal way to get enable those communities to thrive and flourish.
Community politicians will have seen some of their techniques borrowed and deployed by cynical actors pushing a populist agenda. Some of these actors use a community for their own gain, and to further their own illiberal aims. An initial glance at one of these campaigns might confuse it for Community Politics – it will show someone acting on a concern of local residents, being quite cross about something and having a clear enemy to blame.
Social media, and local Facebook groups in particular, have been used by these fakers to spread misinformation and tension in communities. It’s no coincidence that there is a crossover between former UKIP and BNP activists, and people now involved in hyper-local “independent” campaigns in various parts of the country. Calling themselves names like “Putting Placename First”, the “Little Snodborough and Wigglesworth Independents”, they can be wolves in sheep’s clothing.
So how do we fight back? Like we always have done. By knocking on doors and talking to people, face to face. It’s really easy to dehumanise people when they’re only visible through a screen. It’s much harder when they’re a living, breathing, feeling person in front of you on your doorstep.
We fight back by leading. Some can confuse Community Politics with doing everything their community wants. And while it is obviously true that the Community Politics practitioner is and must remain their community’s representative in the town hall and never the town hall’s representative in their community, there will be times when clear leadership is needed.
Think of an example where a malevolent actor has whipped up a community against a new 5G phone mast being erected based on all sorts of bogus conspiracy theories. The campaigner has got a large number of signatures on a petition. Should the skilled community politician join the fight against the mast and follow the expressed wish of the community they seek to represent, however misinformed that expressed wish?
No, of course not. There might be all sorts of reasons why the mast isn’t the right thing but bogus conspiracy theories won’t be one of them. The Community Politics practitioner is not the weak general who asks which way their troops are heading so that they can run to the front to lead them.
To quote The Theory and Practice of Community Politics: “As we have made clear, we want to stimulate action by communities to take and use power Although this process is in itself liberal, the goals and style of those communities need not be liberal. There is a need to defend, maintain and extend the practice of liberalism within and against many groups in society. We therefore see two roles for the Liberal Party in the community politics movement: firstly as the core of the movement, stimulating, enabling and supporting communities in campaigning; and secondly as the continuing force for liberal values and practice within the world.”
When done right, Community Politics isn’t about just saying stuff to get votes. It isn’t about going whichever way the wind is blowing. There is a key role for leadership, both within the community and particularly after a successful election, at the town hall.
There can be conflict when a community is against something locally that we think is a good idea nationally. As people who believe in evidence-based policy making, we know that taking urgent action to address the climate emergency is vital for the future of the whole planet.
The informed community politician knows that their community – and all of our communities – are a key part of the answer to how we tackle our generation’s biggest challenge. It’s all of our problem and we all need to be part of the solution. Much of the discourse around climate change takes place exclusively at international or national level, but only by delivering locally too can we take the action that’s needed.
An example of of the local action that’s needed is to encourage those who can walk or cycle to do so. As any local cycling campaigners will know, there is significant overlap between those who really like driving their cars who may not support improvements to local cycling infrastructure, and those who vote in local elections.
Remembering that we are our community’s representative in the town hall, and not the other way round, is the right place to start when facing a situation like this. Huge pressure can be placed on councillors to get them to conform, either within our own party, by other parties, or by council officers. Your responsibility is to your residents first and everyone else after that. And it’s residents not voters that’s the key word here – including the ones who aren’t old enough to vote yet.
The community politician will be in ongoing dialogue on a whole range of issues with their community and so they’re not just rocking up telling people they’re wrong. Making a case the residents may not initially agree with will have more credibility than coming from someone who is “just” an elected representative who doesn’t have that track record with that community.
We have a role to persuade and lead and not just pander to those who vote in local elections, some of whom will be small c conservatives, however they vote at election time. When elected, you’re the councillor for everyone in the patch, not just the ones who voted for you.
The decision needs to be taken about whether the situation is one that calls for persuasion, using some of the trust you’ve built up, or one that calls for spending some of the political capital you’ve been cultivating. And then what should we do when our community is against something, we agree with them but the law doesn’t care what we think and is going to bulldoze over our wishes anyway? We should change the law of course! We want power so that we can put it back into the hands of our communities. We can do that by getting elected in enough numbers so that we can change the law.
So, when do we know we’ve got Community Politics nailed? This idea that isn’t new but is still radical needs ongoing attention and effort. It’s tough and is an ongoing, living process.
It isn’t something you can tick off your to do list as having been achieved – even with a vibrant, thriving community, our liberal values will still need to be fought for, built on, defended and championed both for and within our communities.
As liberals, we know that centralised control isn’t compatible with Community Politics and yet the two largest parties in the country (for now) bring power to the centre at seemingly every opportunity. To have enabled, thriving, flourishing communities who can take their own decisions and focus on their own priorities, we need power taking from Whitehall (or Holyrood, or Cardiff or countless town halls up and down the country) and giving back to communities.
The sort of comprehensive change in the distribution of political power that we wish to see cannot be accomplished in a single coup. It must be a continuing and accelerating process throughout the whole of society. And it will never be complete. If once it ossifies, it ceases to be Community Politics.
To quote The Theory and Practice of Community Politics one last time: “Community Politics changes people’s lives for the better. There should be more of it and we need to get more passionate community politicians elected so that there is.”
You can order The Battle for Liberal Britain here or donate to Lisa Smart’s campaign here.
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