Jon Rogers should resign as Labour chair

Policy debate is the life blood of the Labour party. In a febrile political atmosphere it is perhaps inevitable that the pulse quickens, as circumstances present space for new thinking and policy options open up that simply didn’t exist in the more recent past. However, how to have productive and comradely policy debates in the current context is something we are pretty useless at in my neck of the woods. But that’s not because of incompetence. It is the way it is by the design of those that lead it.

In Brighton Pavilion Jon Rogers, the chair of the GC, uses his position as a platform to make inaccurate attacks on the policies of the Labour council and the group leader in a way that is clearly calculated to intimidate. To add insult to injury, he says its nothing personal when even the dogs in the street know otherwise. He is of course entitled to his view. However, as the chair of the GC and, for that matter, the Local Campaign Forum, he has a responsibility to get his facts right, to engage with the genuine challenges that the council faces and to promote an honest, open and comradely debate about what the policy options really are. If he can’t deliver he should resign and publish his blog as an ordinary party member.

The recent blog about the future of local government is Rogers at his most dogmatic. Written in the light of Clare Kober’s announcement that, amidst threats, bullying and intimidation she would not be seeking re-election in Haringey, Rogers draws thinly veiled parallels between the HDV and the actions of the council in Brighton.

In doing so he makes some pretty outlandish propositions. The claim that housing associations, for example, are in effect private sector organisation is pure nonsense. This of course is a dig at the very welcome news of a 1,000 affordable home joint venture between the council and Hyde housing group. Not only is he wrongly insinuating that housing associations make a profit and have to deliver for shareholders, he is also undermining a local Labour good news story in a way that gives ammunition to our real political opponents.

At the heart of his analysis is the argument that the prospect of a labour government makes working with third sector organisations and seeking to attract private sector investment unnecessary. Instead, he argues, we should be developing real alternatives funded by taxation of the rich and the corporations.

The logic of course is that Labour councils involved in anything that isn’t 100 per cent public should stop what they are doing — and wait for a Labour government to win an election and can change the options on the table. Well imagine that on a leaflet at the 2019 local elections (imagine it too on the leaflets of our opponents) Vote Labour — we will deliver nothing until there is a Labour government!

A grown up, measured political debate would, I am sure, conclude that we need to take a twin track approach. This would involve working towards the best policies, but having contingencies to deal with the worst. Unfortunately what we now have is polarisation — and the poisonous argument that those who do the best to deliver for our communities within the current constraints are the enemy.

I am no flag waver for Labour group leader Warren Morgan. I have been snarled at in the past for getting up at party meetings to complain about the lack of consultation around policies and manifestos — and for calling for council tax increases. My heart sinks too when I look at what’s happening in relation to the Pavilion Trust. But, we do need a proper debate that recognises the extremely difficult choices that Warren and the council are faced with. To try and have that debate in the current atmosphere is impossible.

If the Haringey debacle teaches us anything, it is not that trying to deliver for our communities in the context of dwindling local government resources is really tough. We knew that already. What it really teaches us is the utterly lamentable conduct of the debate within our party. Policy debate is the life blood of Labour. The blood supply is being poisoned.

Tube map by Sean Sims.