Richard Burgon is right — we need more political education

Political education has long been a feature of the broad left. In part, this is because they — rightly — feel that most sources of information tend to have a rightward bias. What’s more, the further left you are, the more you feel this to be true.

The truth is that the press has its political leanings and on the whole, it tends to the right. While I don’t buy the line that the BBC is also biased — either to right or left — they do take some of their hierarchy of content from what is reported in the papers, which only enhances the problem.

But there is also a sense of frustration, felt by “true believers” of all kinds, that others are simply not yet alive to the one truth. That’s how a belief in political education becomes an article of faith rather than a desire for a better-informed populace.

In the contest to become deputy leader of the Labour Party, Richard Burgeon has actually done some welcome thinking. The deputy leader is not going to set policy — so to be honest, I don’t really care where they stand on the minutia of what Labour should or should not nationalise. They will, however, be an important player in setting out party culture and activities, and this is the area I want to hear more about.

In this, Burgon has been overactive. His three key pledges are to have open selections of MPs, meaning they would not automatically be re-selected to stand at elections. Instead they would have to win an internal competition to become Labour’s parliamentary candidate, before going on to stand in the general election. He also wants a new Clause IV, to re-instate Labour’s commitment to nationalisation, and a vote for Labour Party members on whether or not to support military action.

A few weeks ago he proposed a new free newspaper for commuters offering socialist news and views and this week, he has proposed the establishment of the Tony Benn University of Political Education. Though when he described this, it sounded less like a formal educational facility and more a funded and organised series of guest lectures and talks.

I think this sounds lovely and fun and interesting. I have no doubt I would attend some of the events and get a lot out of it. I probably disagree with Burgon more than most on the left, but I am sure that there will be some content I would agree with or at least find sufficiently interesting and non-infuriating.

But herein lies the problem. See, I’m already pretty politically engaged. I mean, here I am writing about the Labour deputy leadership contest for a start. So, while this idea might be attractive to those who already have a strong sense of politics, they should never be the priority for those promoting a true political education.

We desperately need better political education and media literacy taught in our schools at the ages where education is universal. It needs to be clear, academically rigorous and unbiased. It must set out the central tenets of different political belief systems and show where they have been implemented, for good and ill. We must teach children how to spot political bias of all stripes and how to challenge their own assumptions and those of others.

And before Toby Young or someone equally awful pops up to accuse me of trying to indoctrinate kids, I stress again that this information must be taught about all political perspectives. I believe that more people might be persuaded of the merits of Scandinavian-style socialism if they know more about it — sure. But I do not believe that socialism succeeds through hegemony, but by being sharpened and honed through challenge. The more thoughtful proponents of capitalism I know, feel the same way.

No one who truly believes in their political beliefs should be afraid to have them interrogated by a better-informed populace. But equally, no one who believes in political education should confuse it with an open house for the already persuaded. It’s far more important than that.