I am
reminded as I write this of the famous book by George Orwell called ‘Animal
Farm’.
Having gotten rid of their human
masters the animals of Manor Farm look forward to a life of freedom and plenty.
But as a clever ruthless elite amongst them takes control, the other animals
find themselves hopelessly ensnared in the old ways.
Now this book may be fable but it has
proved hopelessly prophetic with me recently.
I have been a member of a political
party who shall remain nameless, as will the name of my branch who are the
problem. The political party itself is
not the issue, although some more or indeed any assistance from central office
would have been very helpful.
I strongly believe in independence for
Scotland and therefore after the referendum campaign I decided to join a
political party. However I wish I had never bothered as it has
almost demolished all the positivity and optimism that was instilled by the Yes
campaign.
Details and names have been changed to
protect those involved for good or ill. However getting this information out in
to the public domain has become increasingly important as the future of a
country is at stake and the goings on I describe are undermining that very aim.
If by sheer fluke someone from the branch in question of the political party in
question actually see themselves in this blog post then if they are one of the
wrongdoers, of which there are unfortunately plenty, perhaps they will see the
light and change their behaviour. It has become impossible to change it from
within so it seems it must come from outside. So here goes...
In Yes referendum campaign in
our rural area we cooperated as a team where none of us were in particular
charge. We had a large rural area to cover - therefore had better and more
important things to do than squabble and try to get one up on each other. We
were volunteering and doing so selflessly. We wanted to bring people in, not
exclude them, as the more people we had the more we could achieve, as we
believed the more democratic involvement the better. We were fighting to bring
Government closer to the people. True, we ultimately may have had an
improvement in our circumstances through the achievement of Scottish independence.
But it was never about the people involved or their promotion and was never
personal, and importantly was not seen as a career move. It
was about a belief that things could get better and we were going to do
everything possible to achieve that aim.
I have been involved in party politics
before in another party but had ultimately left as I found it difficult to
promote a number of policies with which I disagreed whilst still agreeing with
the general stated aims of the organisation in question. In branch members
comments and suggestions were respected and reasonable discussions ensued. I
can never recall a raised voice. So I returned to party politics with a
little hesitation as the problems with particular policies still persist but I
did not expect what I got.
Initially my branch appeared to
continue the high standards exhibited during the Yes campaign but very quickly
by late 2014 the first signs of jostling for positions reared their head. Who
was going to stand for Westminster? Who was going to be on the branch
committee? Who was going to stand for Holyrood? Then
the blatant self promoters reared their heads and very quickly multiplied as
they saw that they might get power and influence. Then the people who were not elected to the
positions they wanted started sniping at those who had been elected and the
whole thing just deteriorated.
We have had new members leaving in
disgust after only a few meetings.Rather
than getting welcomed some were mentioned by the sniping committee members and
felt extremely uncomfortable and therefore understandably didn’t want to be a
part of this. At least up here there were other members to care for these
people, understand their upset, and commiserate even if they could not directly
help. If this goes on in other places then I hope there will be similar caring
people around.
One person in my branch takes the
biscuit for sniping as he has made it almost an art form. We
shall call him Fred (no disrespect to any real Freds out there). How I thought
this Fred was ever on the same planet as me I don’t know. I wish he wasn’t on
mine. Fred was on the committee but resigned in a strop over something
and nothing (the exact details of why or what are a mystery are are unimportant).
Obviously deciding he had made a mistake (he has form for resigning in a strop
having done so several times already) each meeting Fred now makes a point of
sitting amongst his clique and snipes at everything the person who got his
previous position is doing and a few other people besides (basically anybody he
doesn’t like). People like Fred are the gift that
keeps giving for those whom politics is an anathema. He makes our branch an
anathema. I cannot believe I respected this
person at one stage. Many times the things
being queried are actually because the new person in the position is unaware of
what to do. However of course Fred relished this opportunity for promoting how
good he was and how rubbish the new person was. It is all sickening and his
behaviour is appalling but is symptomatic of the way the branch conducts
itself.
So we move on to a typical branch meeting.
I went along and what I witnessed will live long in my memory
unfortunately. It was a particularly lousy evening for the time of year which
unfortunately translated to what was about to pass. Once again Fred and his clique were going to disrupt yet another meeting
and they had quite clearly planned what was to happen in advance. The storm
clouds gathered in the hall. This was to be a
vulgar/desperate attempt to oust a member of the committee who we shall call
Seamus. Fred argued that Seamus should apologise for a facebook thread which he
said was very critical of the convenor, although the convenor was not mentioned
by name. The fellow conniver, who we shall call Arthur, continued to verbally
attack Seamus and received a warning from the chair to calm down. The chair
asked if a complaint had already been submitted to HQ to which Fred agreed and
said he had sent a complaint to HQ already. Fred then walked to the chair to
hand over a brown envelope. The chair put his hand out to collect it but Fred
instead threw the envelope onto another committee member’s desk! It was a
letter containing a proposal for a special meeting to discuss the facebook
thread in question with a view to deselecting Seamus. The discussion moved from
the floor to office bearers and one person from the floor said the chair had to
take control of the meeting. It was agreed that the facebook thread would be
read out in its entirety – forget foodbanks, destitution, welfare cuts – this
was what mattered to this branch more than anything as it involved them and
their positions as opposed to folk who actually need assistance and desperately
so. One minor committee member (in a relationship with another one in pivotal
position) tried desperately to argue that the facebook thread was mysogynist!
This view didn’t wash with the membership and real anger started to develop.
The minor committee member and another committee member were very angry and
animated and mumbled various comments. Arthur was again becoming very agitated
and received another warning to calm down. At this stage the microphone was
being passed around by those against Seamus. Eventually Seamus (who had his hand
up for a long time and understandably wished to speak) received the microphone
and under the circumstances skilfully kept his cool whilst under serious
pressure. He acknowledged what had been said but challenged his accusers and
stood his ground in a civil way. At this point Arthur was off his seat and his
face bright red with fury whilst being very animated and pointing his fingers.
He was standing only a few yards from the treasurer, who had indicated felt
intimidated at a previous branch meeting, although she did throw a few angry
mumbles out herself exactly the opposite to what she was arguing in the last
meeting. At this point the Chair gave Arthur a third and final warning that if
he did not calm down he would have to leave the building!The minutes of this
meeting do not illustrate the Arthur episode, as after argument at a subsequent
meeting they were voted through even although they were incomplete or wrong.
Seamus being vilified was unsurprisingly fully included.
Seamus by any measure was subjected to a bitter vile bullying/abusive
and intimidation ordeal backed up by some office bearers who have themselves
lost the plot! This was ugly and vulgar to observe and
if it was to occur in a public place would probably have resulted in a law suit
or prosecution for intimidation. Seamus was persecuted
that evening and humiliated by both branch members and members of the executive
and regardless of what the facebook page was about this was totally
unacceptable!
With regards to the subject of facebook messages, I can say quite easily
that the thread read out was nothing in comparison to what I have read, many
from whom were doing the accussing on that particular evening. The very fact that members of the branch are lurking around looking for
negatives is quite disgraceful and would shame any
organisation least of all one which is voluntary by its nature and is meant to
be force for good.
And then we come to our most recent
branch meeting and my last. A reasonable proposal was put forward to discuss
politics in our meetings. Never at any stage is there a platform for
discussing real issues like poverty, redistribution of wealth, independence or
indeed anything else worthwhile discussing. Given
that this is actually the reason that we are all meant to be there you would
have thought that this plan would be given immense support. It
would also be an infinitely more positive thing to spend time on, rather than
constant tiny internal branch matters, and Fred’s continual sniping. Well the
democratic answer was a big fat NO. Presumably due to the fact that the person
who proposed this reasonable measure is not a member of the ruling elite of the
branch, it was voted down. Plus it was also dressed up to be something entirely
different in the agenda i.e. additional time at these meetings which have
become so burdensome given their content. So
it has been officially decided that in a political party branch, politics is
not actually to be discussed. Or at least until one of the in crowd suggest it
perhaps?
In order to sort out the contention
regarding the minutes another reasonable proposal was put forward to make an
audio recording of the proceedings. This too was voted down, as to quote Arthur
'he wants to be able to say things in the meetings which he does not necessarily
want recorded'. Tell us something we don't know Arthur. Never a truer word?You would never have gotten away with what you did
in conjunction with Fred and co if things had been recorded.
Self promotion is all very well if it
is for the good of the organisation and you need to have some degree of this to
stand for election. However when that detracts from the operation of the
organisation, is in direct conflict with it as has quite clearly been the case
on a few occasions, or there are witch hunts against certain people who are
perfectly able, but just not liked by certain people all ready in positions of
power, then your organisation is ultimately doomed. Gone is inclusion. Now
my branches actions show they consider it good to exclude and make a misery of
those that don’t agree that you should be allowed to promote yourself or your
clique, or indeed if you say anything out of line at all.
The pomposity, stupidity and arrogance
of the ruling elite in our branch are achieving what they want which is what
makes it so sad. They will indeed get all the positions as there will be nobody
else left. The people who attended branch meetings, who were
the selfless activists are drifting away demoralised and humiliated. The
people who are being lost are those who were not in it for selfish means – they
actually still believe in the original aim and still want to achieve it.
I am reminded how ‘Animal Farm’ ends.
“Twelve voices were shouting in anger,
and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of
the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig,
and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was
which.”
I want Scottish independence for the
same reasons I did before. Our distance from Westminster means we are ignored
except if there is something of advantage to be gained by those in power in
London by making a pretence of listening. Now
however the fact that the politicians that the people elect will be within
closer kicking distance is something which I consider high on the list of
priorities, particularly if the people elected are of the stature of those self
promoters and sniping miseries in my own branch (whose members have been
compared to a nest of vipers more than once) of which I am ashamed to say I
remain tentatively but most definitely not an active member. However I shall
continue to chunter away with blogging and facebook in the hope that
independence will come around one day.
I want these meanderings to be a
reminder to the people now active in politics in Scotland and in other
countries around the world. Don't forget who you are meant to be serving. Now
let me get back outside in the farmyard where I belong.
