Peter Kenyon

New Labour not dead - Mandelson...mmm

Sky News is reporting a curtain raiser on Business Secretary Peter Mandelson's speech to the Institute of Directors tonight in which he is reported to dispute claims that New Labour is dead. I still see the words on Labour Party Head Office stationery, but I'll have to confess that I have not used them on branch or CLP stationery, election literature or newsletters for years. We have a durable brand with an updated image as shown.

Dreams can come true for Labour Party members

On 27 April 2008, I posted ahead of the May elections and in anticipation of the latest round of Labour Party policy making due to start on 2 May after the polls closed. I suggested:

On tax, we in the Labour Party have got some very serious work to do to restore a sense of fairness to our policy. At what level of gross income should anyone pay tax? I'd open the bidding at the level of the living wage. And you?

Then we need to be work out how fair taxes can be achieved. I'd open the bidding for a higher rate of tax for those earning silly money and shut down the scope for avoidance. But what's silly money?

So, I'm pleased to see that the ruling Labour Party has made some modest progress in that direction. The problem with detailed changes is the main message can and does get lost on the electorate. That's why we need to watch what the Tory think tanks are saying. Even the Adam Smith Institute recognises the merits of taking anyone on the minimum wage out of taxation. (Hat-tip Bob Piper.) That would be a start. I don't agree with its analysis about how to fund such tax cuts. But I am aware that HMG is light years behind getting a grip on its IT spend having failed to understand the scope for cost savings from open source software, plus the ongoing doubts with big price tags about ID cards, Trident and other non-essentials.

The trouble for the Labour Party and its members is that the powers that be banned discussion about tax-policy at its National Policy Forum in July, just when we needed a national debate about tax fairness. However, it was reassuring to see that President-elect Obama wants to clamdown on tax havens as reported shortly after his elections and that the CHX Alistair Darling in his PBR yesterday fired a warning shot across the bows of some of the UK's notorious tax havens in an opening, albeit belated, bid to reduce the scope for tax avoidance.

Who said members should be fleeced of their subs and not heard?

Labour Party redistribution stakes: Darling v. Cruddas

Sifting through the remarkable pre-budget report from Britain's ruling Labour Party, I couldn't help noticing that among the redistributive measures announced by the CHX Alistair Darling was a lower threshold for a higher tax band of 45% (£150K) than that proposed by leading backbencher Jon Cruddas on 20 September 2008 here of £175K.

What can it mean?

NEC Report No.2 – Part 2 – November business meeting

People often ask what it is like to be a member of the Labour Party. Think of an onion. Left in its skin, it's fine. Start unpeeling it, beware... In my 30 years' membership there have been both tears a plenty, as well as joy. Bearing in mind the number of layers I have sliced into, I thought I'd packed enough hankies for my first real business meeting of the NEC.

As soon as I was elected back in July, informal advice from my new NEC colleagues was: “Keep your head down...take your time...feel you way.” Whereas, the last words from one of my close City of London Branch colleagues before I left London for Esher last Sunday were: “No collusion.”

So I am struggling to be loyal both the Party hierarchy whom I have to work with and you, the members. The best way of describing where we are is to say the Labour Party is at a crossroads, both in terms of its own governance arrangements and with the electorate. It is less than a year since its fifth general secretary in 10 years, Peter Watt resigned in the wake of the undisclosed loans saga. Three months ago, we had been written off by the pundits, too far behind in the opinion polls to recover. Well, as former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson said, “ A week is a long time in politics”.

However, in this report I want to concentrate on governance. The Rule Book Chapter 1, Clause 2.1 says of the NEC:

There shall be a National Executive Committee of the party (the ‘NEC’) which shall, subject to the control and directions of party conference, be the administrative authority of the party.

So what does that mean for each NEC member? You need a little background. Getting elected to the NEC is not like winning a General Election and taking power the next day. An incumbent's term of office if elected ends after the Annual Conference following the election. So in the meantime, what should I have received from Head Office having been elected Well, I wasn't expecting a 40-gun salute. But I had thought, by way of introduction, that I might receive a list of future meetings, an induction programme and a copy of the nomination and election rules for places on NEC's sub-committees. The reality was very different. I had to ask.

There is a strongly held belief among the vast majority of members on the NEC that the Labour Party is unique – in a political sense, I agree. But as an organisation, it's an unincorporated voluntary association. For me, that means it's just like tens of thousands of other unincorporated voluntary association up and down the country. More people, I believe, would be members of the Labour Party if it behaved like one. Since I was elected, I have kept my head down, and quietly set about finding out what I was entitled to. When the Induction Pack arrived, I homed in on the Terms of Reference. It set out what I would have expected for an unincorporated voluntary association – unlimited liabilities for the members. So as you would expect of a newly elected member of the NEC, I asked for a copy of the budget and the latest set of management accounts.

Brace yourself. Are the Kleenex tissues to hand?. That information, I was told, was only supplied to the Business Board and the Audit Committee. Then I began to understand why we are where we are.

Needless to say, my first real NEC meeting was not very comfortable. I seconded Pete Willsman's amendment to the proposed membership of the Business Board to make an extra place available to any member of the NEC, not just past chairs. The voted was lost 4 (CLGA) to many, including all the TU, PLP, ALC and government representatives present. (I declare an interest as I put my name forward for this particular sub-committee.)

I proposed that Section 1.1 be remitted pending further advice. It was said that the NEC's solicitors had been consulted. But we were not given copies of the advice or shown a file note of what advice was sought, and what opinion was given. As I had not rehearsed the proposal with my colleagues, I lost the vote 2 to many. However, the underlying issues will not go away. Yesterday, I was at the London Labour Party biennial regional conference and was inevitably asked by lots of comrades about the NEC. The best way I could think of describing our predicament is that the Labour Party is just at the beginning of a process of what I described as a “normalisation”. By that I mean how do we, in the Labour Party, present ourselves to others in the best possible light – as an organisation that anyone who shares our values would want to join, donate money to, contribute time to, play an active part in, campaign for and vote for at elections?

My hope is that through careful consideration and reflection, the new General Secretary and NEC officers, will appreciate that our Aims and Objectives will be more likely to achieved by consensus building around the Terms of Reference. I am refusing to lie down.

So my next port of call post-Esher is the General Secretary's office to say: “Ray, you and I know that there are legal and constitutional experts who agree with me that the NEC is the management committee of the Labour Party and each NEC member is entitled to the same information to fulfil their fiduciary duties (A fiduciary duty is a legal relationship of confidence or trust between two or more parties.) Click here for a fuller definition. If necessary, I will get it in writing.".

Underlying this is the level of detail required to enable NEC members to fulfil those duties. The case made at the NEC was that, for example, the details of negotiations with Labour's unsecured lenders could not possibly have been kept secret among the 33-member body. My response was that had each member of the NEC agreed a budget every year and received monthly/quarterly management accounts in the first place, as I believe we are entitled to, the Party would never have got itself into the predicament it found itself in a year ago. With regard to the particular, as an individual member of the NEC, I would not have wanted to be kept informed about the precise details of every individual or collective negotiation with any particular group of creditors. But I would have expected to be told about the generality of the issues in the context of my fiduciary duties and advised that steps were being taken to deal with creditors with a view to maintaining solvency and unqualified accounts. An important skill in my experience managing any organisation is being able to set out vital information in a simple and transparent way to enable non-executives, or lay members to see almost at a glance when corrective action might be required. By building in those requirements, paid staff start to appreciate what's expected of them as and when problems arise, not when they threaten to overwhelm the organisation.Let's not beat about the bush. Fundamental governance failures going back a decade took the Labour Party to the brink last year.

As I stated in the closing paragraph of Part 1 of this report, I remain to be convinced that revised Terms of Reference for the NEC agreed on Tuesday 18 November are fit for purpose. Now you know why. Hanky, anyone? Not for me, thanks. I remain optimistic we can work through this, strengthen the Party and use revised NEC terms of reference that are fit for purpose as part of our drive for more active members to win back public trust, as well as future elections.

As for my membership of NEC sub-committee(s) and a National Policy Forum policy commission, the other main business of the meeting, I will let you know when I am sure what I will be doing.

If you have any queries about this report, or any other matter of concern to you, your branch or CLP please let me know. With best wishes, Peter Kenyon peter.g.kenyon@btinternet.com

UK mortgage lending edges up in October

For those looking for green shoots through autumnal gloom, the Council of Mortgage Lenders has this to offer.

NEC Report No.2 – Part 1 – Aims and Objectives

On 17-18 November the annual Labour Party NEC away day was held followed by a full NEC meeting, at Unite – the Union's historic residential conference centre in Esher, Surrey. On a scale of 0 – 10 of 'nothing is too good for the workers' it deserves a 9. If the Wi-fi had been kept on 24-hours a day, I would have given it a 10!

Political context – A united Party, successful annual conference, confident party leader showing the world how to tackle the banking crisis and steer the world economy out of recession as quickly as possible, capped by a stunning (and frankly) unexpected by-election victory in Glenrothes have put a 4^th British general election in our sights. In the meantime there are Mayoral, County Council and European Parliamentary elections on 4 June next year – a springboard for Labour. The attempted Blairite coup against Gordon Brown and a 20-point gap in the polls between us and Cameron's Conservatives seems light years away. Shortly after we left Esher, leading pollsters Ipsos Mori published a poll showing Labour only three points adrift and the biggest party in Westminster, a mere 11-seats short of a majority. As one PLP representative remarked, “even [Labour] MPs in marginal seats have a spring in their step.” My assessment is that this is going to be immensely valuable. Party morale needed boosting to rebuild membership, motivate activists, and maintain momentum.

Away- Day

Aims and Objectives

The idea behind the annual away-day is for the members of the NEC to come together and discuss events and issues that the Party will face over the coming year. The day began with a discussion on the NEC Aims and Objectives paper, which covers and broad range of priorities for both the NEC and the Party not just over the coming year, but looking forward two electoral cycles. Measureable targets have been set. I welcomed this more strategic approach which echoes the work of the LabOUR Commission and Save the Labour Party, which I have been heavily involved in for the last five years. I asked that this approach be adopted at branch, constituency, borough, district and regional party levels as well. We had presentations on Membership – recruitment and retention, Finance, and Elections. Membership remains a challenge. But no one doubts the opportunity. The critical question remains how? The Party's web presence Membersnet is to be the subject of a User Survey. Finance and members' perceptions of how the national Party manages its affairs is, I believe, as important to rebuilding as the Party's political standing in the opinion polls, and the weekly electoral tests in local government by-elections up and down the country.

Finance

The Party's governance/finance arrangements are being addressed. Though looking back through NEC members' published reports of last year's Away Day, I came across this reference in Stephanie Peacock's account:

“General Secretary, Peter Watt gave a report on Party Finances and Fundraising, outlining the stable and well managed situation the Party finances are in.”

Which only goes to prove that you can never be too careful, and underlines the need for effective scrutiny by lay members of the NEC. Revelations of undisclosed loans to the Party hidden from Party Officers, including the Treasurer, almost immediately after last year's away-day triggered a sequence of actions by the NEC, in particular by its officers, to save the Party from insolvency and qualified accounts. The evidence is already in the public domain. The 2007 Annual Accounts filed with the Electoral Commission, reported to members and adopted at Conference tell the story.

Our new General Secretary Ray Collins, who has barely been in post three months, will be sending out a report to CLPs, affiliated socialist societies and trade unions setting out how we plan to continue living within our means, pay for campaigns and clear our debts. As far as branches and CLPs are concerned, I think that national officers of the NEC and party staff are going to have to proceed with caution. The underlying issue is should branches and CLPs be responsible for and encouraged to fund their own activities? My attitude is emphatically, yes. Should the Party have a debate about redistribution, mutual aid and support – locally within CLPs, regions and nations? Again, emphatically, yes. But we didn't get into that level of detail at the Away Day itself. But there was a recognition of the need to seek out and circulate examples of good practice at all levels. That will represent an important start.

Elections 2009

We received a full presentation on the elections that are coming up next year, how the Party will be approaching them and what the key areas are. We were given information about the resources, training and support that is available for local parties. Deputy Leader Harriet Harman introduced the presentation on Campaigning, Elections and Vote 2009 and reminded us about the importance of the European elections which involves the whole electorate, 40% of whom now have a postal vote. She called for a major mobilisation. As one leading TU representative remarked, “we can't win without footsoldiers”. I asked about the manifesto process, and our readiness to work together with sister parties and was assured that Compass Youth/Young Labour members contributions to drawing up the PES manifesto online were valued as a means of engaging young people as party members. In my view this level of sensitivity is vital to reversing the decline in membership.

Partnership in Power

We were offered an office presentation on how the outcomes of the new policy processes have worked since 2007 Annual Conference. A timetable for further work was outlined, with provisions for two possible further meetings of the National Policy Forum under its present membership before the next British General Election – one in February/March, and another possible just before the election. The Joint Policy Commission met on 19 November. Look out for an update in my colleague Ann Black's NEC report. I asked why the Party had not taken advantage of the Save the Labour Party/CommentonThis/Compass Youth initiative to enable NPF documents to be commented on and amended transparently. Sadly, I did not get a reply. Too many members have had no feedback about their amendments. There have been too many instances of papers being issued too late to enable members to participate. As a result the Leader's promise to give all members a say is still to be honoured. This is an area of Party activity which is formally due for review in 2009 as a result of an undertaking given by the Leadership at the 2007 Annual Conference. One to watch.

The following day we had a formal NEC meeting. Further discussion between the General Secretary and myself is planned as I remain to be convinced that changes to the NEC's Terms of Reference as agreed will achieve their stated objectives. A fuller report will follow in Part 2.

If you have any queries about this report, or any other matter of concern to you, your branch or CLP please let me know. With best wishes, Peter Kenyon peter.g.kenyon@btinternet.com

Labour membership recruitment opportunity - IoD

I jest not. This latest statement from the Institute of Directors backing Gordon Brown's tax-cutting plans is not only a slap in the eye for the Tories, but an excellent Labour Party membership recruitment opportunity. Next time I get an IoD sign up invitation as a director of a social enterprise, I think I might dip into my pocket, if IoD members do so for Labour - small donations prefered. Hat-tip Andrew Sparrow from Guardian Political blogs

Politicisation - something in the water?

Every since Peter Mandelson announced his support for the Post Office retaining the benefits payment contract, I have been asking who put what in his tea. Today, hot foot from the latest Labour Party NEC meeting I check the headlines and discover this.

What is going on?

What odds on a UK 2009 election now?

The latest YouGov poll to be published in the Sunday Times provides further evidence of public opinion shifting back to the Labour Party, though ComRes in the Independent on Sunday suggests the Tory lead is strengthening both reported by UK Polling Report. 

Will this mean a shortening of the odds on a 2009 General Election (and hence increased probability) as illustrated here? Not much evidence yet, but one to watch.

Pips squeak politics revisited

Apologies for delayed action blogging. But you might relish the ideas. Last Sunday reviewing the papers on Andrew Marr's BBC 1 TV AM programme, Baroness Shirley William chose as her top story the lead in the Observer's business section on Obama tax haven crackdown. In these troubled times when bankers have had to be bailed out by governments of right, left and centre political persuasions, I wondered how long it would be before someone recalled a misquoted mantra of the 1970s – “tax the rich until the pips squeak”.

I think it is worth while revisiting the circumstances in which it was alleged to have been said at the 1973 Labour Party conference by the then Labour shadow chancellor, Denis Healey.

According to William Keegan, who interviewed this Labour legend (the best prime minister we never had – some say) in 2006, Healey never came out with the quote that the Conservatives are still fond of digging up, namely that he wished 'to squeeze the rich until the pips squeak'. Healey said: 'I never used it. I quoted something from the 1920s....' What the then shadow chancellor in fact said, at Labour's 1973 conference, was 'there are going to be howls of anguish from the 80,000 people who are rich enough to pay over 75 per cent on the last slice of their income'. The 'pips squeak' was originally used by First World War leader Lloyd George; Healey did quote fellow Labour Cabinet minister Tony Crosland, requoting it 'in reference to property speculators, not to the rich in general'.

I wonder what's inhibiting Cameron's Tories today?