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| It’s the new big thing in politics - the old-style public meeting | It’s the new big thing in politics - the old-style public meeting |
| (21 days later) | |
| Anyone up for an evening with the Rev Barriball? Visiting the excellent Penlee House gallery in Penzance the other day I noted a programme on display for a service at the Congregational Church in Market Jew Street from 22 April 1900. The line-up for this turn-of-the-century gathering included the reverends CD Barriball, WA Labrum, JP Southwell and several other “addressees”. Their words of wisdom were to be “interspersed with musical selections”, a framing that suggests it was the reverends’ words that mattered most. There was a long evening ahead for those attending on 22 April 1900. | Anyone up for an evening with the Rev Barriball? Visiting the excellent Penlee House gallery in Penzance the other day I noted a programme on display for a service at the Congregational Church in Market Jew Street from 22 April 1900. The line-up for this turn-of-the-century gathering included the reverends CD Barriball, WA Labrum, JP Southwell and several other “addressees”. Their words of wisdom were to be “interspersed with musical selections”, a framing that suggests it was the reverends’ words that mattered most. There was a long evening ahead for those attending on 22 April 1900. |
| “It would have been packed,” I said to my companion. “Most of them would be on Twitter now,” she suggested, implying there would be no audience in August 2016 for speakers with something to say, or perhaps not to say. | “It would have been packed,” I said to my companion. “Most of them would be on Twitter now,” she suggested, implying there would be no audience in August 2016 for speakers with something to say, or perhaps not to say. |
| Twitter and Facebook have transformed the way we communicate, making that meeting in 1900 seem even more dated now than it would have seemed 20 years ago. I read and hear constantly that the internal crisis in the Labour party is more intensely thuggish than the one in the early 1980s. This is not the case. Those battles – between the Bennites, the centre-left Kinnockites, the social democrats then seen as being on Labour’s right, and the militants from Militant Tendency – were as intense and bloody as the current conflicts. Neil Kinnock still speaks of the actual fights he had with various raging opponents then, emerging bloodily from the loos at one party conference. He also makes clear the blood was not his. | Twitter and Facebook have transformed the way we communicate, making that meeting in 1900 seem even more dated now than it would have seemed 20 years ago. I read and hear constantly that the internal crisis in the Labour party is more intensely thuggish than the one in the early 1980s. This is not the case. Those battles – between the Bennites, the centre-left Kinnockites, the social democrats then seen as being on Labour’s right, and the militants from Militant Tendency – were as intense and bloody as the current conflicts. Neil Kinnock still speaks of the actual fights he had with various raging opponents then, emerging bloodily from the loos at one party conference. He also makes clear the blood was not his. |
| Modern social media give the false impression of heightened intensity, enabling those who want to fight to do so from a safe, anonymous distance. In terms of Labour’s civil wars, that is the difference between now and the early 1980s. Tweets can be as violent as a bust-up in a conference loo, but those who compose them are hidden behind a computer, a shapeless generator of fury. There are many life-enhancing pleasures arising from social media, but they bring new meaning to bullying as a form of cowardice. | Modern social media give the false impression of heightened intensity, enabling those who want to fight to do so from a safe, anonymous distance. In terms of Labour’s civil wars, that is the difference between now and the early 1980s. Tweets can be as violent as a bust-up in a conference loo, but those who compose them are hidden behind a computer, a shapeless generator of fury. There are many life-enhancing pleasures arising from social media, but they bring new meaning to bullying as a form of cowardice. |
| But social media have not destroyed the public meeting. They have done the opposite. Twitter, Facebook and the rest are indirectly responsible for the glorious revival of the gathering where real people meet in a physical place. For some of us, sitting behind a computer is not enough. We need to get out. What is beyond doubt is that the old-fashioned forum of the public meeting is back and is the perfect counter to social media. | But social media have not destroyed the public meeting. They have done the opposite. Twitter, Facebook and the rest are indirectly responsible for the glorious revival of the gathering where real people meet in a physical place. For some of us, sitting behind a computer is not enough. We need to get out. What is beyond doubt is that the old-fashioned forum of the public meeting is back and is the perfect counter to social media. |
| Even in August political meetings are packed. Last week several newspapers published a photo of a long queue of people outside a hall, waiting patiently to be crammed in. Were they waiting to see the Rolling Stones? Had Adele fitted in a few post-Glastonbury gigs? No, they were rolling up to hear Owen Smith, the contender for the Labour leadership. Perhaps the packed audience was hoping he could produce a moment of transformative magic on a stage where, uniquely, arguments must be framed at testing length and questions from the audience answered. | Even in August political meetings are packed. Last week several newspapers published a photo of a long queue of people outside a hall, waiting patiently to be crammed in. Were they waiting to see the Rolling Stones? Had Adele fitted in a few post-Glastonbury gigs? No, they were rolling up to hear Owen Smith, the contender for the Labour leadership. Perhaps the packed audience was hoping he could produce a moment of transformative magic on a stage where, uniquely, arguments must be framed at testing length and questions from the audience answered. |
| Smith is not alone. We are used to summers where Jeremy Corbyn packs them in, but there was nothing inevitable about his suddenly acquired magnetism. At the start of his first leadership contest last August, his close ally John McDonnell warned him that, for them, the campaign might be like a sad episode of Last of the Summer Wine as they travelled together, two relatively old men, addressing half empty meetings. Instead, they discovered an appetite for the public meeting that they assumed had disappeared long ago. | Smith is not alone. We are used to summers where Jeremy Corbyn packs them in, but there was nothing inevitable about his suddenly acquired magnetism. At the start of his first leadership contest last August, his close ally John McDonnell warned him that, for them, the campaign might be like a sad episode of Last of the Summer Wine as they travelled together, two relatively old men, addressing half empty meetings. Instead, they discovered an appetite for the public meeting that they assumed had disappeared long ago. |
| It is not only Labour in traumatic battle that generates interest. People had to be turned away from crammed halls during the EU referendum. The same applied to the referendum in Scotland, when public debate became vibrant. Meetings take many forms. Festivals are packed, including those where politicians speak. Roy Hattersley talking about Harold Wilson at the Edinburgh book festival sold out weeks ago. In the increasingly fractured UK, with few mediating agencies and at a time when even a job provides little security or sense of community, the meeting has renewed appeal and is worthy of celebration. | It is not only Labour in traumatic battle that generates interest. People had to be turned away from crammed halls during the EU referendum. The same applied to the referendum in Scotland, when public debate became vibrant. Meetings take many forms. Festivals are packed, including those where politicians speak. Roy Hattersley talking about Harold Wilson at the Edinburgh book festival sold out weeks ago. In the increasingly fractured UK, with few mediating agencies and at a time when even a job provides little security or sense of community, the meeting has renewed appeal and is worthy of celebration. |
| Many commentators are disdainful. One of the cliches in the Labour campaign is that Corbyn mistakes the adoration at his rallies for a wider electoral appeal. I doubt if he does for more than an intoxicating moment or two. He reads the polls and the critical media as any leader does. But his meetings reflect a wider hunger for change, a still vaguely defined appetite and one by no means sated by Corbyn’s speeches, which tend to be a series of sloganising arguments rather than an elegantly framed pitch. | Many commentators are disdainful. One of the cliches in the Labour campaign is that Corbyn mistakes the adoration at his rallies for a wider electoral appeal. I doubt if he does for more than an intoxicating moment or two. He reads the polls and the critical media as any leader does. But his meetings reflect a wider hunger for change, a still vaguely defined appetite and one by no means sated by Corbyn’s speeches, which tend to be a series of sloganising arguments rather than an elegantly framed pitch. |
| The crammed Brexit meetings were also partly a cry for change, summed up in that elusive but mesmerising slogan about seizing back “control”. There could be a thousand public meetings about what control means in a global economy, and perhaps there will be. | The crammed Brexit meetings were also partly a cry for change, summed up in that elusive but mesmerising slogan about seizing back “control”. There could be a thousand public meetings about what control means in a global economy, and perhaps there will be. |
| For at least two decades, politicians assumed that a soundbite on the TV news bulletin was what mattered. Oratory as a part of the repertoire disappeared. Politics became technocratic rather than the art form it partly must be. The glory of the public meeting is that there is no escape. A speaker must deliver. The audience is composed of real people. The speaker cannot hide away tweeting alone in a room. People want to be there and need to be there, to be together out of curiosity or as part of what they see as a cause. The era of Barriball, Labrum and Southwell is back: good! | For at least two decades, politicians assumed that a soundbite on the TV news bulletin was what mattered. Oratory as a part of the repertoire disappeared. Politics became technocratic rather than the art form it partly must be. The glory of the public meeting is that there is no escape. A speaker must deliver. The audience is composed of real people. The speaker cannot hide away tweeting alone in a room. People want to be there and need to be there, to be together out of curiosity or as part of what they see as a cause. The era of Barriball, Labrum and Southwell is back: good! |
| • Steve Richards presents Rock N Roll Politics at the Edinburgh festival from 16 August | • Steve Richards presents Rock N Roll Politics at the Edinburgh festival from 16 August |
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