Ich Dien - Ronald Paul Ahlfeld BEM
“Society is a partnership of the dead, the living and the unborn.”
― Edmund Burke
Friends,
I’m briefly breaking my Lent social
media fast to share the news that my Father has decided not to seek re-election
after 15 years as a councillor for Gourock, many thanks to everyone who
supported him and voted for him over the years.
It goes without saying that the
whole family are immensely proud of everything Dad has achieved in that time and
also during the many decades beforehand, establishing and running Gourock YAC
alongside my Uncle Brian Woods. It’s been a life of service and while Dad will
be enjoying his well earned retirement, I’m sure there’s still much to come.
My Dad was born just after the
war and raised on Shore Street in a part of the town we like to call ‘Old
Gourock’ or ‘Gourock Bay’. His own father, grandfather and numerous uncles all
worked in Adams Boat Yard just along the road at Adams Street, as did many of
their neighbours on Shore Street, a street of houses and tenements without
indoor toilets. The Ahlfelds had been in Gourock since the late 1890s and on
his Grandmother Margaret ‘Meg’ Ritchie’s side, they perhaps went as far back as
the 17th century.
It was these fine, decent working
people who forged my Dad’s social attitudes and political views which much
later informed his decision to stand as a councillor.
Ordinary people in Gourock had often
felt a wee bit ignored by the Labour dominated Council in Greenock, there was
always an underlying sense of loss of autonomy in ‘the Burgh’.
More so, working class people in
Gourock also deeply resented the idea that Gourock was entirety affluent and
Tory voting and as such, they never always felt completely represented by
mainstream political parties, save for a few good individual councillors over
the years.
Therefore, we always suspected
that that a local candidate, firmly rooted in the community, representing ALL
people in Gourock, free of political party bias, could potentially win a huge
amount of support.
In his final term he won the single
biggest majority for any independent candidate in Scotland. Various commentators,
political anoraks and national newspaper columnists asked what his secret was?
How could an independent win such a big majority?
In truth, there wasn’t any
secret. The answer lay in the power of civil society and in local institutions and
associations. My Dad never really seen himself as an independent candidate as
such, rather he understood himself to be a ‘community candidate’ whose duty was
to directly serve and represent the community above everything else, above party
politics and above personal interest.
This concept of direct democracy and
a politics free of politics never always went down well with everyone, there
are those who could never believe that some elected representatives do in fact work
for the shared common good of all people, just as Gourock YAC had been created years
earlier for ALL the young people of Gourock regardless of race, religion or
background.
There were those who simply could
not accept that the way to win council elections is to quietly and tirelessly go
about the un-glamorous business of sorting people's housing issues, street
lighting, bins, anti-social behaviour and traffic problems from 9-5 and beyond,
every single day of the week - The ordinary
things of daily life which actually matter to people.
Indeed, there was the hilarious suggestion that
my father was (simultaneously) a closet Labour, SNP and Conservative supporter
who secretly drank in both the Bouverie Rangers supporters club and the Celtic
supporters club...all at the same time.
This type of nonsense usually
came from people who simply didn’t understand that the good life is to be found
institutions and associations. My Dad was a product of Civil Society, spaces
where people come together to make life better.
He is a friend to the Boys Brigade
and the Bowing club; he is a lifelong member of the Torpedo Factory Club, the
co-founder of Gourock Youth Athletic Club. Our family had deep roots in Gourock
Free Church and a long association with the Gourock Masonic Lodge and both Old
Gourock and St John’s, as well as St Ninian’s.
He supported them all and represented
them all, and in turn, he had their support, that was the secret!
Of course, having friendly ecumenical
relationships with all the Gourock Churches wasn’t without controversy, there was
the odd occasion when elderly Gourock minsters and priests even encouraged their
congregations to ‘vote for Ronnie’ from the pulpit.
Then there was the rival candidate who thought
it would be a good strategy to spend the election campaign going around Gourock
with his agent slagging off my Dad – Of course, he lost his deposit and quietly
slipped out the vote count at the Greenock Waterfront, somewhat less vocal than
he had been during the run up to the election.
There were the jealous ‘it should have been me!’
guys but my personal favourite was the fellow councillor who once hilariously complained publicly that “Ronnie was too parochial and only interested in the welfare of
his own constituents”.
That’s not to say Dad never fostered
good relationship and friendships with all his fellow councillors and those within
political parties. Dad always had a massive amount of respect for all those with
whom he disagreed.
One of my Dad’s recent final
pieces of business was to encourage New Scots to settle here in Gourock, just
as he has grown up alongside Italian and Irish families in Gourock, followed by
the welcome arrival of families from Hong Kong, Iran and India in more recent years.
And so, if you want to continue Councillor
Ahlfeld’s good work now that he has retired; simply serve other people wherever
you are and serve your community wherever you find yourself. Join a club or a
group and build up civil society, things are always better when done together at
the most local level as possible.
Seek out a common life together,
or as the Prophet Jeremiah tells us “seek the welfare of the city where I have
sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you
will find your welfare”
