From Mr Rob Thompson
Sir, - Canon Angela Tilby's column (20 September) jumped
out of the page at me: I am a son of the Methodist manse and an
active member of the Labour Party. As I read, however, I became
increasingly disappointed with her analysis of the theology of the
Labour Party.
I am incredibly proud of the victories that trade unions have
won for ordinary working people over the past 150 years, and not
least of the part that my Methodist forebears played in that
effort. But, as important as the relationship between the Labour
Party and the trade unions is (after all, the pioneers who founded
the party deliberately chose to name it Labour, not "Socialist"),
trade-union affiliation is not the "moral heart" of the Party, as
Canon Tilby suggests.
The moral heart of British Socialism, with its unique history
and philosophy compared with other Socialisms, is and always has
been the twin principles of equality and fellowship. Socialism in
this country existed before trade-union membership became possible,
let alone permitted by law. It evolved not through the relationship
between trade unions and a political party, but in individual
consciences in chapels and meeting houses, at the mineshaft and on
the factory floor. It was passed on from one person to another
until it became a collective force that needed the structure and
processes of organisations such as the early trade unions and the
Labour Party.
Keir Hardie, Arthur Henderson, R. H. Tawney, and later John
Smith did not adhere to the mission of Socialism because they
happened to be members of trade unions that in turn happened to be
affiliated to the Labour Party. Why instead? Primarily, because
they had read the Gospels, and because they had seen in the Sermon
on the Mount those principles of equality and fellowship.
It seems to me that Ed Miliband's proposal of replacing
automatic affiliation with an opt-in system of individual
affiliation is the right move to balance the input of union
leaders, and thus strengthen the position of ordinary trade-union
members and activists in communities far from Westminster.
Equality and fellowship - that is the theology of British
Socialism; and I am pleased to tell Canon Tilby that it is alive
and well in the Labour Party of the 21st century.
ROB THOMPSON
21 Bowden Drive
Lincoln LN6 7LG