Peter Kenyon

Inside that envelope

Oooo..raffle tickets, Labour Today, covering letter and a 2nd class pre-paid envelope  err...where's the ballot paper? Aagh....err covering letter is headed "Our opportunity to shape the Labour Party's future 4th para ..The NEC....no, no no..has just appointed a new General Secretary ......NEC ballot paper enclosed? Nope, raffle tickets, Labour Today, covering letter and 2nd class pre-paid envelope.

Aagh, sooo silly.....turn over the covering letter the ballot paper is attached.

Should I use a cross or a tick?  Doesn't say!

What about the candidates? Covering letter pointers? Err, no. Ballot ballot paper references? Err, no. 

Aagh..Labour Today cover - no, its not a TV set in Gordon's living room - it says NEC Ballot 08 use your vote candidate details inside (8pt, maybe)

Page 2 - nope, Page 3 - welcome signed Harriet Harman, Page 4...Page 5...Page 15...NEC Candidate information

First task if elected get agreed format for future postal ballots that meets minimum standards for the conduct of such elections - ballot paper(s), candidate book, sae.

If the Treasurer has failed to factor in enough money to pay for OMOV ballots, then we can all draw our own conclusions.

Vote Kenyon and CLGA for Labour's NEC

Ballot papers for the six constituency places on the National Executive Committee should be sent to members eligible to vote by the end of this week. The last we heard was the planned closing date was 18 July - just ahead of the National Policy Forum.

 

If you're one of those entitled to vote, I hope you pick through your post carefully, find the ballot paper (which in previous years has been 'hidden' in other Labour Party material) and exercise your democratic right.

Why vote for me? I only want Labour governments. We all know what's at stake. The Leadership has to be held to much closer account than over the past 10 to 15 years. While those whom we, the members, have helped get elected have been in office, to put it politely, they have tended to neglect us.

The Centre Left Grassroots Alliance brings together members standing for the NEC from across the country who share a set of values, even if they may differ on some policy specifics. As it says on the label 'centre' and 'left'.

Our focus is this:

Gordon Brown on taking over as leader of the Labour Party promised to renew party democracy, rebuild the party itself, and give members more say in shaping policy. CLGA candidates will seek to hold him to his word. This is vital to increase membership and activism, and to win back electoral support for Labour candidates at every level.

Our joint leaflet can be found here. You can see from this blog that it is focussed almost exclusively on exposing how the Labour Party currently functions and the yawning gap that exists between Leader and members. If we want to win the next British General Election, we have got to close that gap pdq.

If you want to know more about me, you can see the CV I submitted with my application for the post of General Secretary here. My priorities are set out in the covering letter I sent to Dianne Hayter, the current NEC chair with my application in the Round Two recruitment after David-Pitt-Watson withdrew..

If you share that vision, then vote Azam, Black, Kenyon, Reeves, Shawcroft and Willsman before 18 July. We are prepared to stand up for what's right.

Thank you.

Ballot papers for the six constituency places on the National Executive Committee should be sent to members eligible to vote by the end of this week. The last we heard was the planned closing date was 18 July - just ahead of the National Policy Forum.

 

Sleepwalking - Labour Party NEC style

Yesterday's Labour Party NEC took a perfunctory moment to consider the events leading up to the coronation of Ray Collins as General Secretary. How many candidates applied? Answer: five, and one withdrew. Supplementaries: None. Not even a smidgeon of curiosity about the identity of the person who withdrew. According to my sources he was one of the short-listed candidates in Round One, believed to be Michael Parker. So why did he withdraw? Was it a dawn-chorus moment courtesy of beleaguered Labour Party Leader, Gordon Brown. Ooooo, nooooo, we don't doooo deals.

Then there's the question of relations between members of the shortlisting panel comprising Labour Party Officers and the candidates. According to my sources the minutes of Labour Officers' meeting don't even list who was present. So that's alright then. No need to declare possible conflicts of interest if you don't bother to record who was present in the first place.

Oh, I nearly forget, the proceedings started with Obituaries - tributes were paid to the late Gwyneth Dunwoody and Tom (latterly) Lord Burlison, former professional footballer, deputy general secretary of the GMB union and Labour Party treasurer. Tom was remembered particularly fondly by NEC chair, Dianne Hayter as a 'fixer'. I kid you not, you couldn't make this up.

I'm still up for challenging this way of doing politics. If you are a Labour Party member, a ballot paper for the NEC constituency section election 2008 is due to be sent to you at the end of next week. Vote - Kenyon, Azam, Black, Reeves, Shawcroft and Willsman.

Cash-strapped Labour Party deadline gone for Conference passes

According to the Labour Party website the deadline for applications for Annual Conference passes, except exhibitors, has passed. The deadline was set as 6 June 2008. Even then you had to be a member since at least 8 June 2007.

For an organisation that was prepared to allow new members to vote in its Leader/Deputy election last year within weeks of joining, and changed the dates of this year's Annual Conference to encourage more visitors, I find this baffling, particularly since the Party' finances are in such a fragile state.

Perhaps management will improve with the appointment election coronation of a new General Secretary after the special National Executive Committee meeting on Thursday 12 June.

Expect an extension of the deadline when someone at 39 Victoria Street wakes up. Last year it went to 31 July on the website, possibly even later for 'trusties'.

A TU bailout is not the answer to Labour's financial woes

Hat tip to Labour Outlook for spotting this story in the Daily Mail on Saturday. However, I strongly disagree with the author's conclusion, namely; only the unions can bail Labour out.

Modern union barons might, with immense reluctance, bail out Gordon Brown's Labour Party, but only if the Prime Minister makes commitments that carry a very heavy political cost.

The Labour Party's National Executive Committee appears to have failed to exercise control of the Party's finances since David Pitt-Watson was director of finance in the late 1990s. One obvious source of finance that has been consistently ignored since are its individual members, regional, constituency and branch labour party structures - at least as far as systematic fundraising is concerned. It is neither in the interests of the Leadership, the affiliated trades unions or individual members that Labour in government become dependent exclusively on trade union donations and affiliation fees for solvency.

But before that process could be triggered there has to be a radical overhaul of the Party's financial management arrangements and a clear commitment from the former Leader Tony Blair to commit to repay a substantial proportion if not all of the reckless loans taken out while he was in charge. Most people think it is quite unseemly, if not obscene, for him to be accepting highly lucrative directorships and other paid positions after authorising Labour Party fundraising to be undertaken in circumstances, which ordinary members might be forgiven for thinking were ultra vires.  

Labour GS shortlist of one! NEC officers back Collins

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.

Save the Labour Party, mock not!

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.

Why is Labour's NEC blind to its liabilities?

This is pure speculation on my part. But I've been wrestling with why someone applies for a job, gets an offer, then turns it down. Not any old job, but the general secretaryship of the political party to which you would have to feel a deep-rooted affinity to apply in the first place.

The Labour Party's precarious financial predicament is evident. But what of the past debts? Who is liable? My hunch has been that it is the NEC, which, of course, includes the General Secretary. Now that the hare about contractual difficulties concerning previous employer has been run to ground according to today's FT, that only leaves one explanation. The Labour Party is unable to offer indemnity to any future General Secretary for liability for past debts.

As a candidate for the NEC in the elections due to take place between mid-June and mid-July, I intend to make make it my business to request advice from the Party and report back. Ditto as a prospective candidate for the GS vacancy - deadline 23 May.

The current NEC may think this matter is best brushed under the carpet. I don't see how the Party can put its affairs in order unless the NEC owns up to the enormity of the Blair/Levy legacy.

Labour Party readvertises GS post

Potential candidates can see the ad here. Next task is to compare with previous advert/PS/JD and report back.

Labour Party to abandon equal ops over GS shambles?

David Pitt-Watson's decision not to take up the post of General Secretary of the Labour Party was announced last Friday in the wake of last week's 'disappointing' election results,. Speculation is now focussing on a quick fix to appoint. As yet, I have not spoken to any of my fellow CLGA slate colleagues who are currently sitting on the NEC. But those members whom I have spoken to are concerned about the NEC's commitment to equal opportunities. Will this be abandoned in the circumstances?

That begs the question of what are they (the circumstances, that is)? The latest vacancy arose from the abrupt departure of Peter Watt (pictured) last year, following revelations of hidden donations to Labour Party funds in apparent breach of electoral law, and Party Rules. Peter was the fifth General Secretary in ten years.

The post is theoretically an elected position of Annual Conference. IMHO we should have an OMOV ballot. But at the NEC officers meeting yesterday, it was decided to reopen applications without the assistance of headhunters (Rockpools invoice for the previous abortive recruitment is believed to be a modest £50K.)  According to my sources, NEC chair Dianne Hayter unilaterally cancelled the NEC scheduled for 22 May, in favour of a meeting in early June after which applications will have been sifted by Party officers. (Don't they have any other business to discuss? So much for good governance.)

Whether that decision stands is a moot point. But there seems little doubt that No.10 has done another wobbly and is now backing former T&G official Ray Collins, who failed to secure the votes on the NEC when a non-equal opps selection process led to the appointment of Peter Watt back in 2006. Charlie Whelan, political director of Unite, and Brown's former spin doctor, is being cited by sources who prefer to remain anonymous as the source of the 'Ray's the next GS' story. How that idea is squared with the five hours committed by the Leader of the Party to the abortive interview panel that elected David Pitt-Watson is a bit of a mystery at present. (Insiders say Brown sat on the panel processing official papers until the time came for the vote - not the best advertisement for equal opportunities recruitment processes, either.) As for Mike Griffiths, who failed by a narrow margin to secure the post against Pitt-Watson, the speculation is that he will only apply again if he can win.

As avid readers of this blog will remember, I was a candidate in the first round of this latest recruitment. In the absence of an invite to interview from No. 10, the headhunters, I blogged about the competences needed. I came down in favour of a financial strategist/negotiator inclined to rebuild a mass membership party, rather than a trade union fixer, who delivered for Brown and the unions; but not the CLPs, and the wider membership.

One to watch....