Labour Party members are to be denied sight of rule changes arising from the Refounding Labour consultation triggered by Ed Miliband's election ten months ago.
According to veteran constituency Labour Party (CLP) representative on the ruling National Executive Committee, Ann Black, any rule changes to be put to Conference will not be decided until the NEC's next meeting on 20 September. Annual Conference 2011 starts in Liverpool four days later.
In her covering note to her unofficial NEC report, Ann wrote:
As explained below, final recommendations will not be agreed by the NEC until 20 September, and these are likely to include some of the most contentious areas. So there will be no time for delegates to consult with their local parties before annual conference. In addition current plans are that no amendments will be allowed and the document will be voted on a whole, Yes or No, including any rule changes.
Members need to find their voice to stop this attempted pre-Conference fix. I am going to my General Committee tonight with an Emergency resolution:
This CLP:
I will no doubt get roundly criticised for wasting their time, as no one takes any notice of members full stop. We'll see.