These things are always a bit lost on those of us from the old mining areas; this vast rural constituency is solidly Labour, as is the entire county, and as is the adjacent corner of Northumberland, where both MPs, half of the Border County's total, supported Jeremy Corbyn. But Fred Jerrome writes:
Of the 199 parliamentary seats classified
as rural, only 30 elected a Labour MP in 2015.
Nineteen rural constituencies were included in the party’s list of 106 target seats, but in the end Labour captured only one of them.
This level of irrelevance is not the result of the painfully bad support we gathered in May – it is far deeper rooted.
Where I live, in the South West of England there are scattered only 236 Labour councillors – 12% of the total.
On twenty-two councils, Labour has one or fewer councillors and on four there are actually more elected Greens than Labour Party representatives.
These are not the foundations of a One Nation party – they are the ruins of a movement.
Why has the countryside become a foreign realm to us? Because Labour has failed to engage in the kind of creative thinking on local economies that could catch the attention of rural communities.
While city economies are increasingly vibrant and their governance is being reformed accordingly, rural areas seem stuck in a 2001-timewarp; a post-millennial hangover of “regeneration” that amounted to new shopping centres and leisure parks.
We did not have answers to the questions about the future of small towns and villages, nor did we even particularly acknowledge the specific problems that needed leadership.
Attending coffee mornings is not enough for real engagement with communities.
Our candidates did not present themselves like local leaders ready to spur redevelopment with other social partners, and instead more like glorified social workers listening to concerns and ameliorating on a limited basis, largely via the promise of the benefits of a Labour government that the rural voters were sceptical of.
Yes, voters did want their energy bills to stop going up, but they also wanted to know their small town was going to see flourishing communities with jobs and security.
In Keynsham, a town in North East Somerset once dominated by a Cadbury’s factory (shut down when foreign-owned Kraft acquired the British firm, then broke its promises to protect the jobs), a new development of the centre was begun after years of stalling.
Contrary to its enthusiastic billing, it went over-budget, made a catastrophe of transport through the town centre for almost two years, was designed without the input of locals (even down to the street names, imposed by the council centrally) and is now loathed as a piece of architecture.
What’s worse, it amounts to a new one-stop council office, and a series of retail spaces without good visibility from the high street.
There was absolutely no consideration of how Keynsham’s future as a settlement related to the development beyond attracting shoppers from Bristol (a hopeless task).
Many of the plots are empty; the most visible is a Sainsbury’s local – hardly the sustainable regeneration needed for Keynsham to offer something more than cheaper homes and regular trains to Bristol.
Labour could have been at the forefront of opening this development up to popular influence – an opportunity to engage people on the future of their town and make Labour relevant.
Yet the opportunity was missed, because of a lack of leadership and vision.
Where was the cooperation with unions to use branch reserves to endow an adult training institution, perhaps in partnership with the WEA?
Or the initiative to demand cheap space for co-ops and credit unions?
Labour needs to develop a new generation of leaders to avoid similar lost chances to transform local economies.
Institutionally the state has tried to set up coordinating facilities, in the form of local economic partnerships, but these are stuck in the limited vision of attracting more inward investment from large firms rather than innovating from indigenous sources.
Commissioning of services, a site of intense political heat, has been abandoned by Labour thanks to the local domination of a narrow “state good, all else bad” mindset that also afflicts elements of the unions.
We must seize this ground, engaging trades councils in procurement to link public money with virtuous providers – whether co-op or corporate.
Winning in the countryside is entirely possible for Labour.
From the abolition of the agricultural wages board to the evaporation of bus routes and isolation of older people, the countryside faces a decade of abuse by Tories.
Labour must become the real campaign to protect rural England – and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland too.
This means leadership, thinking creatively and understanding the peculiar character of the countryside.
Not because the pathways cities have blazed are negative, but because the countryside has been left behind in this process thanks to stagnant governance, and needs to be enabled to develop its own pathway to 21st century success.
Jeremy Corbyn's emphasis on housing and transport is key to this. The other three candidates, whatever there names were, bought into the theory that the only thing of interest to the countryside was foxhunting, a tiny minority pursuit even in the tiny number of villages where it exists. But they got absolutely nowhere.
Nineteen rural constituencies were included in the party’s list of 106 target seats, but in the end Labour captured only one of them.
This level of irrelevance is not the result of the painfully bad support we gathered in May – it is far deeper rooted.
Where I live, in the South West of England there are scattered only 236 Labour councillors – 12% of the total.
On twenty-two councils, Labour has one or fewer councillors and on four there are actually more elected Greens than Labour Party representatives.
These are not the foundations of a One Nation party – they are the ruins of a movement.
Why has the countryside become a foreign realm to us? Because Labour has failed to engage in the kind of creative thinking on local economies that could catch the attention of rural communities.
While city economies are increasingly vibrant and their governance is being reformed accordingly, rural areas seem stuck in a 2001-timewarp; a post-millennial hangover of “regeneration” that amounted to new shopping centres and leisure parks.
We did not have answers to the questions about the future of small towns and villages, nor did we even particularly acknowledge the specific problems that needed leadership.
Attending coffee mornings is not enough for real engagement with communities.
Our candidates did not present themselves like local leaders ready to spur redevelopment with other social partners, and instead more like glorified social workers listening to concerns and ameliorating on a limited basis, largely via the promise of the benefits of a Labour government that the rural voters were sceptical of.
Yes, voters did want their energy bills to stop going up, but they also wanted to know their small town was going to see flourishing communities with jobs and security.
In Keynsham, a town in North East Somerset once dominated by a Cadbury’s factory (shut down when foreign-owned Kraft acquired the British firm, then broke its promises to protect the jobs), a new development of the centre was begun after years of stalling.
Contrary to its enthusiastic billing, it went over-budget, made a catastrophe of transport through the town centre for almost two years, was designed without the input of locals (even down to the street names, imposed by the council centrally) and is now loathed as a piece of architecture.
What’s worse, it amounts to a new one-stop council office, and a series of retail spaces without good visibility from the high street.
There was absolutely no consideration of how Keynsham’s future as a settlement related to the development beyond attracting shoppers from Bristol (a hopeless task).
Many of the plots are empty; the most visible is a Sainsbury’s local – hardly the sustainable regeneration needed for Keynsham to offer something more than cheaper homes and regular trains to Bristol.
Labour could have been at the forefront of opening this development up to popular influence – an opportunity to engage people on the future of their town and make Labour relevant.
Yet the opportunity was missed, because of a lack of leadership and vision.
Where was the cooperation with unions to use branch reserves to endow an adult training institution, perhaps in partnership with the WEA?
Or the initiative to demand cheap space for co-ops and credit unions?
Labour needs to develop a new generation of leaders to avoid similar lost chances to transform local economies.
Institutionally the state has tried to set up coordinating facilities, in the form of local economic partnerships, but these are stuck in the limited vision of attracting more inward investment from large firms rather than innovating from indigenous sources.
Commissioning of services, a site of intense political heat, has been abandoned by Labour thanks to the local domination of a narrow “state good, all else bad” mindset that also afflicts elements of the unions.
We must seize this ground, engaging trades councils in procurement to link public money with virtuous providers – whether co-op or corporate.
Winning in the countryside is entirely possible for Labour.
From the abolition of the agricultural wages board to the evaporation of bus routes and isolation of older people, the countryside faces a decade of abuse by Tories.
Labour must become the real campaign to protect rural England – and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland too.
This means leadership, thinking creatively and understanding the peculiar character of the countryside.
Not because the pathways cities have blazed are negative, but because the countryside has been left behind in this process thanks to stagnant governance, and needs to be enabled to develop its own pathway to 21st century success.
Jeremy Corbyn's emphasis on housing and transport is key to this. The other three candidates, whatever there names were, bought into the theory that the only thing of interest to the countryside was foxhunting, a tiny minority pursuit even in the tiny number of villages where it exists. But they got absolutely nowhere.
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