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One of the
unforeseen (at least by me) consequences of social media is that, as well as
enabling (if not encouraging) us to live (online) in our own little bubble, it
can enlarge some bubbles that already existed.
The Westminster
bubble (inhabited by those who either have or wish they had a “career” in “politics”)
is currently disproportionately exercised by a largely
confected “crisis” around allegations of antisemitism (itself nourished
by, if not actually founded upon “evidence” often from social media).
Social media
enables more of us to live (vicariously) within the Westminster bubble (or any
other bubble that we choose) and therefore to feel compelled to become our own
instant experts on whatever topics are to the fore in that bubble, whether that
is the IHRA
definition, or (perhaps less frequently) the Nakba.
Everyone now
has the option of becoming the sort of sad bag carrier of the kind one used to
find only in the pubs around the Palace of Westminster, and to get as
unnecessarily excited (as they always used to be) at the latest Palace gossip.
We all now have the opportunity to feel ourselves engaged with the ersatz
politics of personalities in “real time”.
Within the
Labour Party social media invites us to opine incessantly on the wit and wisdom
(or lack thereof) of Pete
Willsman and to join in such vacuous debates as that recently prompted by a
daft
but – apparently - widely read little article around “cranks” -v- “Lansmanites”.
At the risk of
seeming like the old man I suppose I am, I think I preferred it when excessive
engagement in virulent argument occurred largely at meetings one had chosen to
attend (or outside the meeting, with paper sellers). It helped to keep things in a sensible
perspective (and to allow us to get on with our lives, including our political
activity).
Because –
outside the Westminster bubble, and generally in the material reality which we
inhabit offline – most people, most Labour supporters, most Labour members are
not talking about antisemitism, or about who is “in” and who is “out” at
Momentum HQ (or even in the Leader’s Office). Least of all are they (we)
discussing those members
of the Parliamentary Labour Party so obviously transfixed by delusions of their
own significance that they think people are watching them.
In Brighton and
Hove we have spent this summer thus far organising the selection of candidates
for the City Council elections which will take place next May. These elections
offer a real chance for Labour to regain a majority which we lost in 2003 (when
Blair’s war in Iraq really began to nurture support for the Greens locally as a
left-wing alternative).
The process
hasn’t been entirely smooth or straightforward, but has enabled Party members
to make their choices – and one of the most reassuring aspects of the selection
process has been that both satisfaction and dissatisfaction are spread evenly
across the Party, geographically and politically (suggesting that we have
managed to achieve a certain overall fairness).
We haven’t
quite finished selecting candidates (because our success in selecting a large
number of women candidates in the most winnable and marginal wards has meant
that we need to consider reopening the Panel of potential candidates to enable
a minimum representation of women in the slightly less marginal wards yet to
select).
However, we
have selected the great majority of candidates – and a majority of those are
socialists supportive of the current Party leadership (indeed every single
candidate I have heard speak, from across the Party’s “broad church”, has
professed their support for the Party Leader and the politics of the 2017
General Election manifesto).
We will now
move on to the democratic process of writing a socialist manifesto, as we
continue to build a mass democratic socialist party in our locality. A small
number of individuals find it hard to accept the changes in the Party but, just
as most of those sitting Councillors who wanted to carry on were chosen to do
so by the members, so most of those who were not, at first, supporters of the
current leadership, are willing to work together constructively.
I realise that
the Labour Party in Brighton and Hove may just be my “bubble”, but I think it
is fairly safe to generalise from our local experience and say that the correct
response from Labour Party members and activists to the hostile
headlines in the press and the constant ferment of social media is (as
I said earlier) to keep calm and carry on.
The opinion
polls have us running
level with the Tories nationally and (whilst of course we would sooner be
in a better position) one has to reflect upon the fact that those Party members
most keen to comment critically on our poll position are generally also among
the tiny minority doing their best
to make it worse.
We are in a far
better position in the polls than we were in the run up to last year’s General
Election, and there is every chance (though no guarantee) that, when the next
General Election comes, we can replicate the boost we gave to our support
during the campaign.
There is – to be
clear - no guarantee of victory at the next General Election (nor in our local
elections) and we cannot afford – and do not have – any complacency. We need to
keep building, and energising, a campaigning Labour Party at a local level.
We therefore
need to focus on the real political issues confronting our people – (including)
the state of the economy, the future of work and workers’ – and trade union -
rights, the defence of our health service and of our public services generally
and the genuinely pernicious racism faced on a daily basis by black and ethnic
minority citizens (and the associated march of the far right back onto our
streets).
Do not let us
be distracted by the agenda of our enemies, whether they seek to impose it upon
us using their traditional allies in the mass media, or through the amplified
echo chambers of social media.
Keep calm and
carry on.
