Dadabhai Naoroji
I have written here before about the case for community outreach by our Party and cited amongst other statistics results from the Ethnic Minority British Election Survey (EMBES) which showed in the 2010 elections: 68% of ethnic minorities had voted Labour, 16% Conservatives and only 14% Liberal Democrats.
To encourage local parties to do more to promote support from diverse communities, we have of course implemented various initiatives. These range from the appointment of a National Diversity Advisor for the Party in Issan Ghazni (2007-2010) and permanent staff in the Party’s Diversity Unit, to the establishment of volunteer Regional Diversity Champions across the country.
One of the biggest challenges I believe is the scale of the task having to grapple with the different strands of diversity. On the question of race however, I think we might now be able to make real strides through the creation of a new Party Award: the Naoroji Award.
Dadabhai Naoroji is probably a familiar name to those of you who are well versed in Liberal History. He was the first Asian Member of Parliament across all parties, hailing back to the year 1892, and had successfully stood on Gladstone’s Liberal platform for the constituency of Central Finsbury. In memory of the late Naoroji, an award in his name was thought up by one Cllr Rabi Martins, Vice-Chair of Ethnic Minority Lib Dems and the idea approved by the EMLD executive, Federal Executive and our Party President.
The criteria for the Judging Panel to find the local party most deserving of this award (consisting of a cash prize, a mini-shield and a larger rotating shield) include the following:
- The extent to which the membership of the local party reflects the BME population of their local area and the nation as a whole
- Local Party outreach programmes to BME communities to encourage membership and active involvement with the Party
- The extent to which BME members are elected to the Party Executive
- The number of BME council candidates and Councillors, and the proportion of BME candidates in safe seats
- The extent to which local BME members are encouraged and assisted to apply for Assembly and Parliamentary seats
- The extent to which BME candidates are encouraged to apply for the Parliamentary seat in their constituency.
My personal reaction was to realise with dismay that as a Party we do not yet practice ethnic monitoring of our membership. Nevertheless this should not pose a monumental hurdle and will certainly help us focus more attention on the general profile of our own Party membership, be it with regard to gender, age, race/culture, disability or sexual orientation.
If you have read this far and are still interested, please note that applications are currently open, and the deadline is 31 July 2012. Submissions should be made to [email protected] at Lib Dem HQ with supporting evidence (no longer than 5 pages in length) including:
- Descriptions of campaigns in and appealing to ethnically diverse communities
- Case studies of individuals recruited or affected by these campaigns
- Positions created or used to support campaigning in ethnically diverse communities
- Testimonials or case studies from BME party members
- Evidence of encouragement of BME members to run for elected office inside the party
- Descriptions of support offered to BME members proposing to seek election / case studies with BME elected to public office
Applications are to be accompanied by a covering note from a Local Party executive member who will act as the point of contact.
I understand that decisions on successful applications will be made known to the relevant Local Party by 17th August 2012 and it is likely that presentation of the awards will take place immediately prior to the leader’s speech in the afternoon session on Wednesday 26th September 2012. All in full glare of the media.… an opportunity not to be missed?
* Merlene was co-founder of Chinese Liberal Democrats and on the executive of the LibDems Overseas. She co-edited “Rise of China – Fresh Insights and Observations” published by the Paddy Ashdown Forum (2021)
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11 Comments
I do hope that that the Party takes note of this Award, that has been established to encourage and reward those local groups that have realised the seriousness of the current situation where we do not have one non-white Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament.
In fact since Dadabhai Naoroji, in 1892, we as a Party have managed to send only one further other non-white MP to Parliament, and this was Parmjit Singh Gill who was elected for the Liberal Democrat at a by-election in 2004 in Leicester South, but did not retain the seat at the 2005 General Election.
What does this lack of obvious ethnic diversity within not only Parliament, but also within the Party, at the highest levels of the local and national level say about us?
Surely the time has come to consider a positive action programme of recruitment, retention and progression in order to redress the imbalance not only with regard to race, but across the entire diversity spectrum, so that we are truly reflective of society?
We could start this process, by formally adopting positive initiatives such as equality impact assessing our policies, procedures and functions, and as Merlene highlights, the demographic monitoring of our membership.
I wish to commend the Party to move from the laudable rhetoric that it communicates with regard to equality and diversity, and move into action, to achieve its vision of “Building a fairer Britain”.
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera
English Party Diversity Champion
Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrat – Executive Member
Whilst I am pleased to see this initiative, I suspect that my Local Party (Bury St Edmunds) won’t be competing for it any time soon. For despite the fact that we have a BAME Chair and Treasurer in our Local Party, the BAME population in vast swathes of our constituency is so small that it would be difficult to find.
We would almost certainly encourage anybody who turned up to do whatever they felt they were interested in, our approval processes for candidates are certainly applicant friendly, but we treat everybody the same, regardless of their background, mainly because we can’t see any good reason why we shouldn’t.
And that’s rather difficult to vouch, I suspect…
Thanks Ruwan for sharing your views on positive action across the diversity spectrum. How would you roll out “equality impact assessment” on our policies, procedures and functions? Sounds not only very technical but also like it would require the Party to invest a lot more time and resources?
Mark, I am glad you are pleased to hear of this initiative. I don’t think the fact that there are few ethnic minorities in your local area means your local party may not qualify. It makes it easier if anything to show that your current membership reflects the local demographic profile and having a Chair and Treasurer from a minority community will clearly earn you extra points.
As for the comment about treating “everyone the same” when they present themselves to your local party… it sounds wonderfully civil, but sadly may not go far enough. What we are trying to encourage by the Award is for local parties to become more proactive . In outreach we have recognise that we have to use different strategies and be sensitive to areas of inequality or of concern.
Very disappointed with your take on this initiative
If your way of thinking had worked there would be over 50 or more non white members of Parliament by now
If you and others think this initative is aimed just at at constituencies with huge BAME populations they are very much mistaken
The hope behind the award is that it will act as an incentive for local Parties to find and nurture local BME talent because THIS GROUP IS UNDER-REPRESENTED in elected office
There is absolutely no reason why your local Party should not put a plan together to help your Chair and / or Treasurer get elected as a councillor – MP – MEP etc if that is what they wish On the contrary just think what a strong message Busry St Edmunds would send to the rest of the country if you were to win the award
Windsor has never had a huge BAME population That did not stop the Conservatives putting their trust in a BAME candidate And as you know their trust was not mis placed
Happily there is some work going on to meet Ruwan’s hopes on the policy front. A group is being set up to ensure equality impacts are met, by the Federal Policy Committee. I’m going to be part of it.
While we’re at it, I tend to agree with Rabi.
Just to clarify – my comment above was aimed at Mark V
Equality impact assessments do not cost a lot and only take up a lot of time if you’ve been ignoring equality issues. I’ve done them in local government. You ask yourself, WHEN FORMULATING POLICY, what the impact would be on equality for the obvious groups – disabled people, minority ethnic groups, old, young, women, men, gay and lesbian. Can be quite a long list, but in many cases the answer is obvious and often it’s “none” or “positive”. Sometimes a little thought identifies that there could be a negative impact, and then you look closer.
The Party needs to make a start by getting a handlre on the profile of the Membership –
I first asked for data o on membership ethnicity to be collected way back around 2007
Can’t undertand why we find it so difficult to so
Thanks Rabi, Gareth and Simon for your comments. Hope other groups follow the lead of FPC and we can move as a Party to becoming more mindful of equality issues at all levels of decision making.
Rabi,
My point is not that we shouldn’t try to do these things here in Bury St Edmunds, it is more that, relative to attempting to campaign in a small village environment, organising campaigning full stop is our priority, rather than trying to reach out to very small, dispersed communities, although in truth, some of our county divisions are a clutch of small, dispersed communities anyway.
It would also be relatively difficult to provide the evidence sought, especially as the numbers of people we might reach would be relatively small. For example, how big a campaign appealing to ethnic minority communities would you need to be a credible contender for the award? From our perspective, we wouldn’t expect to win, or to have a chance of winning, so, like so many Party awards, we wouldn’t really pay much attention. Awards are won by big, successful Local Parties for the most part, and we aren’t big, or successful.
So, we’ll carry on as we are, encouraging and welcoming anyone who comes forward, I’ll act as the Local Party’s bridge to the wider Party, and someone else will deservedly win this new award. I merely thought that I should point out that creating an award is an incentive to some to change their behaviour, but it might not make a difference everywhere.
But if my Local Party was representative of the wider party, our elected representatives would be more diverse, and our party officers would be more diverse. The catch is, there hasn’t been a Liberal MP in this county since 1951, we’ve never been any more than a junior partner in a ruling coalition, and that rarely, and this is one of the most homogeneous areas of England (my ward is more than 98% white).
I’ll make you an offer though. If you think that Bury St Edmunds has what it takes to be a contender, you’re welcome to come up to Stowmarket, meet the Executive Committee and help us design a campaign plan that would might, not would, give us a chance to win this award. Because we clearly don’t have the ambition to try ourselves, and some outside impetus might just help…
Mark,
You are wrong and the approach you advocate is wrong – it’s not about treating people equally – it’s about tackling inequality. I’s not passive, it’s pro-active. I don’t accept that the treating people equally is sufficient – that just leaves people turning a blind eye to the reality of under-representation. And if you need a course/session or more on sorting this then i love suffolk and am happy to come and explain in more detail – you know where i live 🙂
Ed