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A New General Secretary
By Andy | March 11, 2008
So, the Party has a new General Secretary David Pitt-Watson. Although Pitt-Watson has worked for the Party his a very different kind of an appointment, which may not altogether be a bad thing.
These days Pitt-Watson is better known for his work in the City - he can for example be heard regularly in the Financial Report section of the Today Programme on Radio 4. This will be the kind of appointment that Brown wanted. Going outside the Trades Union mainstream the Party has appointed somebody that will probably have a very different take on Party funding and the current financial crisis.
It will be interesting to see where Pitt-Watson goes. One of the biggest challenges facing the Party at the moment is to rebuild itself as a genuinely participative, membership organisation. Indeed, this is something that Brown promised when he became PM but we have yet to see any real movement in this area. There will be some who will worry about his interest in this area but my only contact came with him over the issue of Party democracy while he was a leading light in the Labour Finance and Industry Group.
No doubt the financial crisis will take up much of the new General Secretary’s time. But if I were him I would start engaging, quickly, with those who recognise the need for change in the structure of the Party and who do so for the genuine reasons of wanting to build a participative party worthy of the 21st century.
Topics: Party Reform |
