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A meeting of Labour Party NEC officers yesterday agreed a short-list of one - Ray Collins for the post of General Secretary.
This followed the withdrawal of Mike Griffiths reported earlier in Tribune.
My own application was rejected on the grounds of lack of managerial experience - not an assertion that would stand up to scrutiny. But this appointment is nothing to do with equal opportunities, its political.
Today's YouGov poll published in the Daily Telegraph shows Conservatives - 47%, Labour - 23%, Liberal Democrat - 18%. Political Betting has links to two Westminster Parliament seat projection calculators. For seats that would change hands I have used Martin Baxter's Electoral Calculus - click here for the result.
Further evidence that the Labour Party's revival is not going to be led from the centre?
Embattled Labour Party leader Gordon Brown today invited members to underwrite the Party's debts according to their means and pledged a major overhaul to re-establish a mass-membership organisation reaching out to every community in Britain to promote Labour values.
The move followed legal advice confirming the financial responsibilities and liabilities of each of the 33-member National Executive Committee. This showed that as currently managed the Party faces bankruptcy and is unsustainable. The liabilities arose from reckless fundraising by his predecessor, Tony Blair.
This is expected to be the main plank in a radical strategy to win the next election.
ends
Imagine!
UPDATE 1400 - Don't forget to vote here
For the last five years doubts have been expressed about the name of a small organisation founded five years ago within the Labour Party focussed on its internal structures and processes - Save the Labour Party.
This morning's Guardian carries a compelling story which suggests to me our little organisation is well named and a rescue plan to save the Labour Party is now urgently needed.
This account is entirely consistent with my own understanding of the liabilities of NEC members, and the reasons why David Pitt-Watson turned down the post. The key word in the following quote is "independent".
Though he was Brown's candidate for the post, he declined the offer after receiving independent legal advice that he would be personally liable for repaying the loans and could be bankrupted if Labour's finances collapsed.
What this suggests is that the Labour Party's NEC failed to secure its own advice about liabilities arising from the reckless fundraising activities carried out while Tony Blair was leader of the Labour Party and a member of the NEC. Furthermore, NEC officers appear to have had their heads in the sand when Pitt-Watson first sought assurances about these matters, and obliged him to get his own advice.
In addition to all the other problems on his desk at the moment, this is one that Gordon Brown is going to have to apply himself to pdq as the underlying problems are not going to go away by scurrying to appoint a new General Secretary.
If Labour Party members can't have confidence in the NEC to manage the Party's affairs, why should the electorate have confidence in its Leader? They can't say they weren't warned. But then we are just rank-and-file.
Yet, that single daily caffeine hit could cost me thousands, according to Malcolm Cuthbert, of financial management company Killik and Co. Discounting inflation, he calculated that by saving on the daily cappuccino, the average 30-something could add £3,843 a year to their retirement pot.
Mmm!
The Labour Party is going through a hellish period. Its Leader's popularity has plummetted. Its share of the vote is at a near term low. It has been without a General Secretary for over six months. The vast majority of media attention is on the personalities involved. Will there be a Leadership challenge? Who are the contenders? What are the odds?
Nevertheless, there are still three channels currently open to rank-and-file members to have a say:
1. The deadline for Labour Party Rule Book amendments is 6 June. My own CLP has taken the view that the National Executive Committee/No 10 Downing Street has too much power to dictate the Conference agenda, and is unaccountable to the members.
2. The deadline for policy amendments for members through their constituency parties is 20 June. Save the Labour Party and Compass Youth with technical support from CommentonThis have made all the official policy documents available in an easy to comment and amend format via the Labour Party Intranet. For the first time at least members who are e-literate will have a chance to share points of view with each other.
3. The election of constituency section NEC members - in which I also decelare an interest as a member of the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate.
Occasionally sight can be lost of the political battles worth fighting. I'd be the first to put my hand up to that failing. But I'd like to keep the focus on the Party - its rules and its structures as I have since I joined Save the Labour Party just under five years ago. Until the stranglehold of No 10 on the Party structures is relaxed then all the policy-making initiatives whether from the Fabians, Compass, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, the Labour Representation Committee or the affiliated trade unions will, in the words of the parable, fall on stony ground and die .
Current members of the NEC face a major test on 12 June concerning the recruitment of a new GS. I should declare an interest as I have resubmitted my application which was rejected earlier this year.
They have to decide:
a) whether the action of NEC officers to reopen the recruitment for a General Secretary was appropriate, or whether the runner-up in the selection meeting on 10 March should be offered the job
b) if they accept the NEC officers action, whether to proceed directly to another selection meeting
c) what sort of general secretary the Party needs, and whether any of the shortlisted candidates meets those criteria
For each of the NEC members in the Constituency Section standing for re-election, these issues represent a particular challenge. Critical is the question of equal opportunities and their role in an appointment of this type. The Rule Book refers to election at Conference on the recommendation of the NEC. The practice has been to waver between a 'nomination' from No. 10 or not, with control still vested in No. 10 whatever the outcome of the selection.
The way NEC members vote on 12 June could become important in deciding who to vote for in the NEC elections that will open the following week with the distribution of ballot papers to every paid-up member.
I will be looking for signs that ensure the strangehold of No 10 on the Party machine is being loosened.
If you are wondering what are the battles that are not worth fighting, I suggest a peek here or here.
Last night delegates at my Constituency Labour Party (CLP) General Committee agreed a proposed national Party Rule Change to give members the right to a provisional Conference Agenda and the Annual Accounts by the end of June. This would allow enough time for due consideration to be given by members at their local meetings to the business of Annual Conference. It's an opportunity for the Labour Party National Executive Committee to rebuild bridges with its dwindling membership. By making itself accountable, the NEC would be showing the electorate that Labour practices what it preaches. It would sit well in the context of the Governance of Britain agenda laid out by our Leader, Gordon Brown shortly after his election unopposed to replace Tony Blair and appointment as Prime Minister by HM the Queen.
In the normal course of events, Rule changes proposed by CLPs or affiliates lie on the table for a year before consideration at an Annual Conference. But we live in unusual times. The Annual Accounts have to be lodged with the Electoral Commission by 30 June each year. So there is no additional administrative burden imposed on Head Office by making them available to members via the Party's Intranet. It just requires the political vision to want to be accountable. If the Conference Arrangements Committee has not got a Provisional Agenda ready by now, it ought to have, surely?
What do Labour Values teach us about Labour MPs expenses, their pay and other benefits? The gap between rhetoric and reality is so great, that my hunch is that it is going to take much more than Gordon Brown's idea about constitutional reform to convince the electorate that the term Labour Values still has any meaning. If I were the next general secretary of the Labour Party this would be high up my agenda to rebuild the Party. The ideas reported to be circulating in the Palace of Westminster today will simply fuel the electorate's contempt for the political class of whatever party.
How can anyone take the Houses of Parliament seriously when leaders of all parties have been feathering their own nests with such abandon?
Is this now the time to revisit the idea of annual Parliamentary elections, the only main demand of the 19th century Chartist movement not to be achieved?
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