The next National Council of the Alba Party will, I believe, be taking place in Edinburgh on Saturday 27th of this month. It will be electing members of four committees – the Conferences Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, the Appeals Committee and the Finance & Audit Committee, plus also on this occasion it will be electing members of a special Constitution Review Group. I’ve put myself forward as a candidate for all five bodies, and receipt of my nomination was acknowledged, so as far as I know I’ll be on the ballot form for all five.
As I may have mentioned once or twice or even seventeen times, I came within just 0.5% of being elected Alba’s Membership Support Convener a few weeks ago, which would have carried with it an automatic place on the NEC. However I then missed out on one of the ordinary member slots on the NEC, which was not particularly surprising given that there were a remarkable eighteen candidates jostling for just four male slots. So you’ll understand how keen I am now to continue to have some sort of role going forward (I’ve been an elected member of the Appeals Committee since last February).
Obviously given the democratising pitch I ran on a few weeks ago, I’d be particularly keen to be elected to the Constitution Review Group. If that happens, the ideas I’d be looking to pursue are –
An NEC wholly elected by one member, one vote (with the exception of the leaders of the parliamentary groups who for obvious reasons should continue to be there as of right). I’m proud to have played a part in bringing this matter onto the agenda, and the leadership seem to have indicated that we’re now pushing at an open door. However, we still need to make sure we walk through that door. The NEC is the governing body of the party and it is indefensible that around half of it is currently elected only by the relatively small minority of members who pay to attend conference.
Members of other committees should also be elected by one member, one vote. Making sure ordinary members of the NEC are elected by the whole membership is the big priority, but I see no good reason why the same should not also be the case for members of other committees too. For example, the Conferences Committee wields immense power and party members should be the masters of it. At present they have no direct say over its composition at all.
An expanded NEC with more ordinary elected members. The proposal to move to six male and six female ordinary NEC members, rather than the four of each we have at present, was a very positive and sensible one and should be revisited.
Looking at ways to give all members a vote on the most important matters. There was a good deal of sneering at my suggestion that all members could take part in conference votes online while following the event via live stream. The idea that it isn’t even technically feasible to do that doesn’t stack up in my view, however I do accept that it is unlikely to happen in the near future. What I do think we could look at, though, is separating out the really important votes on a carefully selected basis and giving all members a say on them via online party-wide “referendums”.
There’s an argument that the need for transparent publication of internal election results should be written into the constitution. Many members were profoundly shocked that the results of the ordinary NEC ballot last month were essentially kept secret, with even the candidates ourselves only receiving partial results. This is obviously unacceptable – there is no true democracy without transparency. It cannot be allowed to happen again, and perhaps the simplest way of ensuring that it doesn’t is to write safeguards into the constitution itself.
Iron out the oddity of how the Party Chair is selected. At present the leader of the party proposes a Chair who is then approved by the NEC. I was a member of the NEC when this procedure was first used, and of course there was no issue because we were all extremely happy with the nomination of Tasmina. However as a matter of principle I wasn’t at all clear as to whether we as NEC members had the power to withhold approval of the nominated candidate and what would have happened if we did. It would probably be simpler if the Chair was directly elected by members, or failing that by the NEC. If there’s good reason for it to be an appointed position, perhaps we should just be honest in the constitution that an appointed position is what it is.
I am also, of course, very open to suggestions from Alba members about other ways the constitution can be improved.
If I am fortunate enough to be elected to any of the other committees, my priorities will be transparency, the empowerment of members, the rejection of factionalism and cliquishness, and a scrupulously fair discipinary process that is never abused in the way that has sadly become all too common in other parties.
Before we finish, a reminder that the Scot Goes Pop opinion poll fundraiser urgently needs a boost – let’s not leave it in limbo for months. It’s important that not all Scottish opinion polling is commissioned by anti-independence clients – we need to make sure that occasionally questions are asked that Yes supporters want asked. Donations can be made via the fundraiser page HERE.
However if you have a Paypal account the best way to donate is via direct Paypal payment, because that can totally eliminate fees depending on which option you select, and payment usually comes through instantly. My Paypal email address is:
jkellysta@yahoo.co.uk
