Richard Gott
Membership Sector Influencer & Thought Leader
Following the UK General Election being announced on Wednesday 22nd May 2024 professional bodies and trade associations across the country should now publish their respective manifestos and priorities to ensure they align or call-out key issue/omissions of those published by the next UK government.
Not enough professional bodies and trade associations are conducting this critical activity, so we provide some ideas and pointers to help more organisations get started!
Why is it important to have a manifesto and priorities?
As the professional body or trade association for your industry it should almost be ‘a given’ that you know what you are talking about in your particular area of expertise/profession/trade. A manifesto with clear priorities outwardly demonstrates this and will help you to focus, communicate with members and lobby government on what you believe is important.
Should your manifesto align to the next new Government’s Manifesto?
In many cases, yes. Alignment can open doors to potential central government funding and support in central policy areas. It can help cement stronger membership body/government relations and bring your organisation closer to respective Members of Parliament (MPs). Obviously there needs to be parity/alignment in the first instance, however a manifesto will help to clearly communicate this.
Is it an opportunity to propose future government priorities?
Yes. This is a great opportunity for membership bodies to clearly communicate what they believe is important for the next government to address, change and develop. E.g. political parties may not have researched specific areas where your organisation has unique insight/knowledge and can provide realistic suggested solutions.
Should membership bodies align in all cases?
No. It may be that a new government manifesto pledge is somewhat unrealistic and therefore needs to be amended/changed. Membership bodies are again in a unique place to reality check such anomalies.
So, if you have not already written, revisited or re-written your organisation’s manifesto now is a great time to do so.
Has MemberWise got any other membership body manifesto examples?
Yes. As part of our commitment to share best practice we asked MemberWise subscribers to share their Manifesto documents. Here is a selection:
- Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
- British Association of Social Workers (+ a great video)
- Girlguiding (4 Key Areas Focus)
- Royal College of Emergency Medicine (4 Related Commitments and Recommendations)
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I’ve hesitated to respond to your post because, from the thread on Memberwise Connect, I’m evidently out of step with everyone else.
We decided soon after the Election was called that there was no point in producing a manifesto. This is not a “normal” Election. Whatever the shape of the parties’ campaigns, there is no escaping that this Election is fundamentally about Brexit rather than putting forward a serious programme for Government. Beyond this, in our specific case, we know from our policy work that the main parties are all lined up against us and unwilling to engage with the details of our arguments or the evidence behind them. They’ve made a straightforward political calculation that there is more to be gained electorally from being seen to bear down on landlords, and don’t appear to want to hear about the potential consequences that may have across the supply side of the rented sector.
Even in a “normal” Election, producing a manifesto during the campaign is more effective in highlighting your policy and campaigning priorities to your members than changing policies. The time to influence parties’ thinking is a year or more out, as they are developing their positions for the next election, not when they have more or less reached their conclusions and are thinking more about how to present them. I’ve always felt that it is more effective to be clear at all times about the principles and values that underpin your organisation’s lobbying and use them to develop a public policy agenda soon after each Election to shape how you work during the new Parliament and towards the next Election.
The one use I have found for Manifestos is giving members a short, snappy reminder of the points they can make to candidates if they have the chance. That works well for the majority of members who don’t really think about politics too much outside Elections. However, we’ve found that we get a much better and more active engagement when we’ve tried to get members involved in focused campaigning on specific issues which they can see will affect them directly.
My sense is that we have drifted away from “normal” four or five yearly Elections at the end of a Parliament towards an era of Italian- or Belgian-style politics, with small majority or minority governments, weak or unstable administrations, more coalitions and, inevitably, more frequent Elections (of course, I may be proved completely wrong on Friday morning!). If that is so, it will be all the more important to take a proactive approach to public affairs rather than responding to set-piece occasions.