A meeting of minds

The Legion is making an increasing impact on the campaigning front, reports Steve Smethurst, as he goes behind the scenes to find out more…

From Legion Summer 2009

One rule that you can normally
take for granted is that committee meetings are rarely an exciting way to spend a couple of hours. But every rule has its exceptions and the Legion’s Campaigns Group and the Welfare Public Policy Panel, which reports into it, are two such rule-breakers.

The Campaigns Group has been going for several years, while the panel was set up two years ago to act as a sounding board for potential welfare policies, such as those that featured in the Honour the Covenant campaign.

Obviously, campaigning is nothing new for the Legion. As long ago as 1922, all the general election candidates were quizzed by the Legion about what they would do to help ex-servicemen if they were elected. What has changed now is that the structure of campaigning and the development of welfare policy is more professional and thorough than ever.

The two go hand-in-hand. At the apex of decision-making is the
Legion’s Campaigns Group, attended by the National Chairman and Vice Chairman, the Chairman of the Women’s Section, the Director General and other senior staff. The purpose of the group is to determine what issues the Legion should have a policy on, what that policy should be, and whether activity on a particular policy should progress to a full-blown campaign.

This last point is especially important because when the Legion commits itself to a full-blown campaign, it needs to take several factors into account, including whether it is ‘winnable’.

“Much of our campaigning success depends on how we tailor our message to the audience we’re trying to influence”, says Stuart Gendall, the Legion’s Director of Corporate Communications. “MPs and ministers are incredibly busy. They need simple, bite-sized chunks of information, which communicate both injustice and urgency. That’s what Honour the Covenant did, and the Campaigns Group played an extremely important part in advising on what was a very successful campaigning strategy”.

The Public Policy Panel also has an important role to play. Members of the panel are drawn from across the spectrum of Legion membership
– from Welfare Caseworkers to County Chairmen to the Women’s Section. Both committees meet four times a year, with the panel’s minutes being submitted to the Campaigns Group for consideration and approval.

Successful campaigns
Each panellist prepares thoroughly for the meetings. One item that was discussed at length was the concept that became the Return to Rationing? campaign. “I saw it as a good idea from the outset,” says Roy Barratt, also the South Region representative on Membership Council. “Yes, we’re here to look after the interests of the ex-service community, but every elderly person has the chance to benefit from this campaign.”

That campaign is now gaining a high profile. In February, the
Legion’s National President, General Sir John Kiszely, handed in a petition at 10 Downing Street, signed by some 25,000 supporters. It called on the Government to rebrand Council Tax Benefit as a ‘rebate’, among other initiatives to reduce increasing pensioner poverty.

The panel has also discussed how support for bereaved families can be improved. “Very few people know how an inquest works,” says Ray Wickson, the Immediate Past Chairman of Shropshire County. “Currently, all the service deceased come through Wiltshire, but logic suggests it would be better for the families for it to be held where the lad came from – so if the lad came from Northumberland, the inquest should be held there.

“The MoD argument is that the expertise and experience is centred
in Swindon – but in reality any coroner could deal with it. People don’t always know their rights to legal representation for example, which is at almost no charge in some cases. We need to get information across to them.”

Eric Williamson, Chairman of Cheshire County, observes that if inquests were spread to various locations, they would be done much faster, benefiting the families. “It might be convenient for the MoD
to travel to one place, but it doesn’t exactly help the bereaved families,”
he says.

Alan Higbee, the panel’s Chairman, is County Chairman of East Riding, Yorkshire. He feels that the Legion has definitely had more of a campaigning impact over the past two years. “The Legion gets a lot of congratulatory remarks in Parliament now. It’s moved from just being there for the provision of welfare to being more about campaigning.”

With a general election just over the horizon, this has to be the way forward if the Legion is to ensure the next Government – of whatever persuasion – honours the Covenant.

Ultimately, a meeting of minds with Government ministers has to start somewhere, and often it starts at a meeting of the Legion’s Campaigns Group, where campaigning strategy is developed. It is there that the contribution of panels, such as the Welfare Public Policy Panel,
can be carefully considered and decisions underpinning the Legion’s campaigning success taken. So far, it looks like a formula for success.