So you think we live in a democracy?

At the Unlock Democracy Fringe meeting at the Tory Party Conference on 2nd October 2018. George Freeman MP is on the right.   Chairman is Alexander Runswick of Unlock Democracy

Speech Unlock Democracy 2^nd October 2018

by John Strafford

I propose that:

No political Party should be registered with the Electoral Commission or its successor unless it has a democratic constitution which can be amended by a majority of its members in General Meeting on the basis of One Member One Vote. 

Why am I proposing this?

Both of our main political parties are undemocratic organisations run by small oligarchies with much wrong with them, but I am going to concentrate on one particular issue within the Conservative Party, because we are at the Conservative Party conference - that is the selection of parliamentary candidates.

Unlock Democracy campaigns for Proportional Representation, an elected House of Lords, transparency in lobbying, a cap on donations to political parties, but if it is successful in getting all of these reforms we will still not have a fair democracy if we don’t have a fair selection process for parliamentary candidates.

In 1998 the Conservative Party brought in a Constitution and all power was taken by Conservative Central Office and the hierarchy that run it.   Why did it do this? 

One main reason was as follows:

Pre 1998 the local Constituency associations were virtually autonomous.   Although there was an official Party candidates list, if the local Association wished to invite someone for selection who was not on the list, or a local person they could do so.   The candidates then went forward to a General Meeting of the Association to select the candidate. Constituency Associations had effective control of their candidates in a General Election.   This issue came to a head in the General Election of 1997 when CCHQ sent Robin Hodgson (Chairman of the National Union) to Tatton to ask the Constituency Association to drop Neil Hamilton as their candidate.   They refused and Hamilton was defeated by Martin Bell.

In the new Constitution of 1998 CCHQ were determined to take control of candidates and brought in a rule that unless you were on the candidates list you could not stand.

This came to a head just before the General Election of 2005 when Howard Flight had the Conservative Whip withdrawn by Michael Howard.   Not only was the whip withdrawn but he was not allowed to be a candidate even though his association wanted him to stand again.   The Party Chairman went to the Association and told them that unless they dropped Howard Flight they would be put into “Support Status” and CCHQ would take over.   The Association backed off and Howard Flight was dropped.

So now, if you want to be a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party you have to be on the Candidates list, but who controls the candidates list?

The Party Board, which consists of people like the Party Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Chairman of the 1922 Committee etc, none of whom are elected to their positions by all the members of the Party, appoints a Chairman of Candidates who appoints members of the Candidates Committee.   This Committee not only determines who can be on the Candidates list but also the process to be followed to become a candidate.   They manipulate the process, e.g. the “A” list, and at the time of the last General Election found that they didn’t have enough candidates, but barred some candidates such as Syed Kemall and David Campbell-Bannerman from standing and ended up imposing candidates on constituencies or giving constituencies just three names to choose from.

In determining who shall be a Conservative candidate a small group of people are determining who shall be members of Parliament and effectively who shall have the chance of being in government.   That is not democracy.   We still have rotten boroughs!

Did the 1998 Constitutional changes bring success?   In the twenty years since then there have been five General Elections. The Conservative Party won one.   In the 20 years prior to the Constitution, when the members ran the conference, ran the Conservative Political Centre, determined who their parliamentary candidates should be etc., there were five General Elections.   The Conservative Party won four of them!

If we want real democracy this issue has to be tackled.    The Conservative Party does not have an Annual General Meeting to which all members of the Party are invited. The Party Chairman, Treasurer, Chairman of the Candidates Committee and Chairman of the Policy Forum are all unelected and unaccountable to the membership of the Party.   Changing the Party’s constitution is an almost impossible task.   Only by regulation from outside are we likely to get a democratic Party.   That is why I have made this proposal.