Here’s a story that I’ve taken from the interviewing work that I’m doing at the moment:
Last Thursday evening, I attended a meeting held by the Leeds Hands Off Our Homes housing campaign group in a small church hall in Middleton Park in Leeds. Issues discussed included the housing bill, the ongoing problems that local people had with the bedroom tax, the likely effects of a lowered the benefit cap, social housing selloffs, the shared accommodation housing benefit rate for younger people – a real range of topics. Housing problems, as we all know, affect a great many people in one way or another. The turnout wasn’t bad. Local troubles were discussed with concern.
So.
Representation.
Present and correct down the back for this event were two local councillors – Kim Groves and Judith Blake who is also leader. I’ll be the first to admit that I know little about these councillors and their work on the ground. They may be good on some level, so I suppose we should allow for that. What I can tell you for a fact is that the two of them did my head in at the church hall last Thursday night. I’m sure that I don’t exaggerate when I say that they were utterly useless, at least as far as offering hope and leadership on the housing topic went. It seemed that their chief concern was to convince meeting attendees not to blame Labour or the council for the housing crisis. It was Don’t Blame The Council this and Focus Your Anger On The Government that and (my personal favourite) Please Don’t Ask Us To Do Anything Illegal As Part Of Your Housing Campaign (someone gently suggested that the council might like to try a bit of non-compliance to fight government housing policy. This person spoke well and put his points politely, but neither of those things helped much. I find that they rarely do. Anyone who suggests a bit of genial civil disobedience to nervous councillors these days is quickly sidelined as the evening’s wacky radical. *Sighs*).
You see where I am heading with this. No leadership was offered by councillors. No inspiring speeches about seizing the day, or descending on parliament to give the government a knuckle sandwich on housing or cuts came down. Maybe they do that on other days. They didn’t on Thursday. Meeting attendees were actually told to be realistic about the council’s limits. Which was a buzzkill, to say the very least. Talking about limits is not a great way to lead or inspire. You could practically see people’s passions and hope congealing in their veins as this came out. I briefly entertained the idea of standing up and shouting You Labour Persons Have Got A Socialist Leader For Christ’s Sake – Isn’t Now Meant To Be The Hour!?, etc, but I didn’t do it. I felt a bit secondhand by this point. It all seemed a bit hard.