Political Esteem

In the months following my June 1973 election as a Councillor I had come to dislike Conservative Group meetings, particularly those immediately prior to meetings of the full Council, which seemed more directed to plotting how to score points off Labour than to promoting actions in accordance with the panoply of Conservative principles.  I found most other members of the Group thought as I did - it was a powerful active minority who bore sway.  I heard later that Labour Groups in other parts of the County were divided along similar lines.  Allied to this and indeed perhaps arising out of these hidden political processes was the low esteem in which politicians were held in the population at large.

By the end of 1973 I was sufficiently concerned about these issues to arrange a meeting to discuss them.  I had to proceed rather carefully because the Group Leader had sent a letter to all members, upsetting quite a number of them, that meetings of small groups of Conservative Councillors had been taking place without his knowledge and consent.  I decided to play the discussion of political esteem "by the book" and therefore sought and obtained authorisation for setting up a Sub Committee for that purpose, under the auspices of the Constituency Political Committee rather than the Group.  The meeting was in January 1974 at the home of a Vice Chairman of the Constituency Association.

Only one person other than myself turned up for the epoch making discussion but also taking part was the Vice Chairman's husband.  One strong reason for the low esteem was quite clear after less than an hour's discussion, namely the unswerving adherence of the political zealot to one particular and limited point of view, completely impervious to arguments that there are other valid points of view let alone that solutions might be worked out which to some extent could reflect conflicting views.  The perception of the reasonable and reasoning person in the street - and many Councillors - is that there is no one right answer and that equitable solutions can often be found.

Perhaps I should have persevered and arranged further meetings but I found the evening so unproductive that I had no wish to repeat the experience.