It was like listening to a conversation through two baked bean tins and a piece of string … with cotton wool wedged in my ears.

I could just about manage to catch Red Ken’s dulcet tones banging on about Blair (or it could have been Clare!) and how the neoliberals sold us out (or it could have been the Liberal Democrats!)

Anyway, this was my debut at the steering committee of the National Policy Forum as it discussed Labour’s manifesto for 2020 – via a telephone conference, kindly sponsored by EE.

I was sat at home in Urmston, just outside Manchester, straining to listen while leading Labour luminaries were holding forth 200 miles away in London. They could easily have been on another planet.

The reason? Simple really,

I had been given just a week’s notice of the meeting (which some bright spark had arranged for the Thursday before Good Friday).

At such short notice, the cost of a rail ticket was extortionate. I couldn’t afford it, nor could I get the time off work.

‘You should never have stood for election then, love’, I can hear some say.

Except I thought this was the ‘new politics’ where party decision-making was being opened up to ordinary members. Who don’t have the dosh, don’t have their transport paid for by a trade union, and work for a living. Like me.

I really hoped to be genuinely involved in shaping the policies that we can sell to the British people as a credible party of government. I was hoping to be a voice for the north – after all, that is why I topped the poll in the north-west constituency section of the NPF.

But it hasn’t quite worked out that way so far …

It seems the ‘new politics’ only happens in London. In the Westminster ‘bubble’, for the convenience of the aforementioned Labour luminaries. Forget claiming expenses down to The London – the party can’t afford it, apparently. And my hitching days are well and truly over, now.

Despite living in the digital age the phone conference was about as much use as the proverbial chocolate teapot. I was not able to play any significant part in what should have been an important and serious discussion about party policy.

I want my party to be less Londoncentric. But it seems we have a long way to go.

If I had been able to contribute, I would have questioned why the Trident debate and defence review were being rushed through so quickly. Why are members telling me they were not even aware this was happening? How is their voice being heard?

The deadline for submissions to Emily Thornberry is 30 April. A week out from polling day, the London mayoral election and police and crime commissioner elections too.

How can our hard-working candidates and councillors participate in a London-based review while working flat out in the short campaign for vital elections?

Shouldn’t we be out winning seats instead of being forced to huddle around a conference call, listening to muffled voices? Shouldn’t we taking our policy discussions out of London? Reaching out to all our members?

There is life outside the capital, you know. I can vouch for that.

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Joanne Harding is rep for the north-west on the National Policy Forum. She tweets @joanne13harding

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Photo: jvk