Labour Party - closed shop or open sesame?

Today's Guardian picks up the story Save the Labour Party has been running for months about the next round of internal Labour Party policy-making under the headline 'Brown to offer activists a say after poll results' and includes quotes from my CLGA slate colleague Ann Black and myself.

The headline typifies the personality obsessions of Westminister-based journalists. Members have always had a say in policy-making. It's just that the Party is notoriously shy when it comes to telling members about their rights, and organised in such a way that even if you have an opinion it is very difficult to make your voice heard, especially if expressed collectively via a trade union or constituency labour party (unless you are an ultra-loyalist.)

That could be about to change in a big way. Watch this space after the polls close.

Comments

[Robert]

Thats me stuffed then we have been told the New Welfare discussion is about removing the Job center plus from the task of getting people back to work, and a new private push by Unum Provident to be paid by results in a £1,75 billion push to rid the country of the Warfare state.

Oh well.

[Peter Kenyon]

Dear Robert

I'm just back from delivering my latest batch of Get Out The Vote leaflets for Ken Livingstone, John Biggs and the Labour Party. Why not rejoin the Labour Party, submit your ideas and see if you can drum up support from like minded people? The opportunity will be yours for the taking. Better still get your local Constituency Labour Party debating whether Labour wants to rid the country of the Welfare state (as you claim) and tell us the result of the vote.

[Robert]

I will join Labour again when it become Labour which I suggest might happen in another decade or so, I've stayed in with my Union the GMB, I've of course joined the LRC and Compass two groups I believe are more Labour then Labour.

But coming back to Labour after watching Brown last night spend a night talking about statistic and making a hash of it, then seeing Brown at the Scotland's TUC walking around the stage like some demented idiot at a speed of a raging bull copying Cameron and Clegg but failing to understand it supposed to be spontaneous . No I will wait for ten or so years , I think it will take this long to rid Labour of these people or New Labour

[Robert]

Well I did vote in the end my wife had registered us, I voted for an independent because he use to be Labour, and we have an independent council. I cannot vote Labour.

But people are saying Labour is listening but your not, Harmon just now said we must scrutinize what the Tories are doing.

No No NO forget the Tories stop copying them do your own thing.

Railways being it back under state control profits and prices are out of control. with fuel prices so high we need cheap trains to take the strain from people who cannot pay £5.50 a gallon.

I need Labour to make the Welfare reforms better no force, how can you force people into jobs polish people will not do, by stopping benefits, all you will do is make my life harder because in the end the work I can do is limited to my education and to the amount of time I can work, and how much money Labours willing to throw at me, I need a new wheelchair, I need a Carer, I need help not force, and Labour has to make jobs not cut them.

Labour has to look at why people have gone against them, well stop being a dam Tory government.

[Duncan]

Robert - I'm going to open a new thread on Labour Left Forum in the next couple of days on welfare polcy. I'll post up a few ideas, but I'd really like to hear what policies you would want brought in, with particular reference to incapacity benefit, etc. If we can hammer out some words on the issue, we can try and get it put forward by as many CLPs and union branches as possible. That will highlight the issue. We also need to make sure some of our MPs are making a nuisance of themselves on the subject - and loudly - before the reforms come into practise. It was Labour forces that managed to get some concessions on the 10p issue (though I don't think that's over yet) - we can do the same on welfare.