Peter Kenyon

Labour Party Conference 2011 remains shrouded - only a week to go

'Twas famously said by former Labour Party leader Harold Wilson that "a week is a long time in politics". If only.The prospects for Annual Conference 2011 in Liverpool are not auspicious. No one outside a hazy inner circle has a clue what is to be debated and how. Some members are cross. Others have an endearing trust in the leadership, and their elected representatives in Parliament, or on the Party's National Executive Committee and the Conference Arrangements Committee.

In the last 24 hours, NEC constituency party representative Johanna Baxter who twitters @JohannaBaxter told her followers in response to questions, including one from me:

@PeterKenyon @mr_onionspressed @Ed_Miliband wed re com of props.Org agreed yest 2 com agreements made @ that mtg.Mail 2go2 CLPs tom re this

That means CLP secretaries should get a briefing today (Saturday).

This followed her representations to Party leader Ed Miliband on Wednesday evening which she reported on her Twitter site the following day after the NEC's Organisation Committee (aka as Org Sub):

Plsd that #nec OrgSub agreed w/ my sugg 2 @Ed_Miliband last nite that we communicate 2 CLPs asap those @RefoundLab props we cld agree 2day

So far so good. However, Ed himself promised publication of submissions to the Refounding Labour consultation back in mid-July. He has been ignored. Of course, that is not how it is being reported by Head Office. It cites staff shortages, technical difficulties. But the truth is there are staff employed by the Party who think they are the Party, and who to date have proved performance-management proof.

Similarly, policy making is as much a mystery. The deadline for submission of Contemporary Resolutions passed yesterday. Why haven't they been published? The official line is that haven't been considered by the Conference Arrangements Committee to establish whether they are 'in order'. Nod, nod, wink, wink - the criteria are so convoluted they make Spaghetti Junction look like a Roman Road. Their purpose - to minimise the risk of embarrassment to the Leadership.

As I asked in my previous blog, "Why would anyone want to join such an organisation?" That's the challenge for Labour's party managers over the next week - to transform the Conference into an event that reverses declining party membership.

In that regard, the Labour Democratic Network (LDN)'s Manchester Declaration sets out a vision of how the Labour Party can become a mass membership party, despite the naysayers agonising over declining political party membership across the so-called established democratic world. That is hardly surprising given the almost universal contempt of politicians for any effective form of accountability, and the corrosive influence of state-funding of political parties.

The basic unit of party organisation for LDN members is the electoral ward. About which there is much to say, but not just now.

Where's that HO briefing about the decisions taken at Org Sub?

UPDATE Email received at 1338 just read - I suspect it's code for more command and control, without sight of the rule changes it poses more questions that it answers. 

To all members

Dear Peter

As you know, final recommendations arising from the Refounding Labour consultation will be going to the NEC next Tuesday, ahead of consideration by the Annual Conference in Liverpool.

Peter Hain promised to keep you up to date with developments and wanted me to provide you with a summary of the some of the recommendations agreed by the recent Organisation Committee, and which will be discussed by the NEC next Tuesday.

The Committee is acutely aware that delegates will be receiving the final recommendations for consideration quite close to Conference, and was therefore keen for these initial conclusions to be communicated now.

The Committee agreed in principle that rules changes will be proposed in the following areas:

Purpose and objects

• Clause I concerning the party's objects will be updated, giving greater emphasis to Labour's role in local communities.

Rights and responsibilities 

• Rights and responsibilities of the party leader will be defined for the first time, including control over appointments to the Shadow Cabinet.
• Rights and responsibilities of Labour candidates and elected representatives will be defined, and provisions made for the use of model contracts.
• Rights and responsibilities of elected members of the Parliamentary Labour Party will be defined, including the right to be consulted on any positions taken by the leadership in the context of a hung Parliament.
• The ALC subscription will be abolished and councillors will instead, in line with other Labour representatives, pay a 2 per cent levy on total income arising from their elected role.

Enabling structures

• Local Government Committees will be replaced by Local Campaign Forums (LCF), which will allow for local adaptation and different models of structure and membership. LCFs may apply to the NEC to pilot new and innovative procedures for selections. CLPs will be free to adopt different models of organisation to suit local circumstances, with certain common features, to allow joint working across constituency and geographical boundaries. There will be a new model of CLP finances to help redistribute resources more equally, and lift struggling CLPs out of debt.

Encouraging recruitment

• The minimum age for becoming an individual member of the party will be lowered from 15 to 14 years old. There will be a lower local join rate for new members, to encourage recruitment.

Policy making

• We will open up the process to ensure a greater voice for members in a system that is more transparent and accountable, and which reaches out to the public. We will create a process that ensures the voices of young members, women, BAME, disabled, LGBT and other under-represented members are heard in policy development. One representative from Labour International will be added to the membership of the NPF; and a textual omission regarding the Northern Ireland CLP, which already has one representative, will be corrected.

A bigger voice for councillors

• The Leader of the LGA shall have the right to attend meetings of the political Shadow Cabinet when in opposition and the political Cabinet when in government. There will be better services provided for our councillors with a new website and enhanced online facilities, more training, design support for templates, and increased support for all Labour groups, large and small.

 

Full details of the actual textual rule book changes arising from these points will be sent to you as soon as the NEC has agreed the final recommendations to be put to Conference. The above recommendations do not represent the full extent of the changes likely to be proposed from Refounding Labour, and further issues are currently under consideration.

In addition, a number of reforms that do not require rule changes, such as new and improved technology for communication across the party, will also be proposed as part of the overall Refounding Labour package, and we will endeavour to ensure that you receive details of the final recommendations as soon as possible.

I hope this information is helpful and I will be in touch with further updates in due course.

Yours sincerely

 

 

Ray Collins

General Secretary

 

 

Labour's unbeatable offer to members - submit a motion

As a constituency labour party (CLP) secretary, I have recently received an invitation from Head Office on behalf of the CLP to submit a contemporary motion for consideration at Annual Conference 2011. 

On first sight this is an excellent and timely reminder of a welcome opportunity. Members getting to have a say. But as the worldly wise know, read the small print. So here's the section of the HO memo relating to how the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) will decide what is valid and what is not.

 2. CAC's criteria for deciding if a motion is contemporary

In deciding if a contemporary motion is valid (contemporary) the CAC will consider the following points:

• Is the issue already addressed in the Conference agenda?
• Has the issue been dealt with by the NPF and Policy Commissions in their reports to Conference?
• Could the issue have been sent to the NPF, Policy Commissions or the NEC before they published their work?

A motion will be deemed to be contemporary if:

a) It is 250 words or less and deals with one subject.

b) It deals with a topic which arose after the publication of the reports of the National Policy Forum (NPF), Policy Commissions or National Executive Committee on 31 July or has not been substantively addressed in those reports. Copies of the reports will be sent to delegates in early September. In the meantime a list of the subjects dealt with by the policy commissions in 2011 is enclosed together with a summary of the contents of the NEC Report to 2011 Conference.

c) The issue could not otherwise have been raised through the Partnership in Power process.

d) It does not seek to bypass either the National Policy Forum policy-making or National Executive Committee decision-making processes or to overturn or revisit the Party Policy Programme as agreed through the Partnership in Power process, including issues defeated at the NPF which failed to achieve the status of an alternative position at the NPF.

The annual reports of the National Executive Committee, the National Policy Forum and the Policy Forums will be sent to delegates in early September. In the meantime please find attached lists of the topics to be covered on the Conference Agenda and in the various reports.

 

All clear? Now, I thought the NPF failed to agree anything at its meeting in Wrexham on 25 June 2011, as a report on policy was tabled too late to be given proper consideration. So does this mean anything goes? I think we should be told.

In any event, I am a bit puzzled by HO's timetable. They are proposing to send the appropriate reports to delegates, not CLP secretaries. So what I am meant to tell our members ahead of their branch meetings in the first week of September?. For the eagle eyed and logistically minded, that means my missive has to be despatched to branch secretaries before the August Bank holiday.

Ooh, I am going to have fun explaining this in plain language in my next Secretary's letter to branches, and retaining the will to live. 

Encouraging freedom of speech: Labour Party machine style

Labour Party constituency labour party secretaries received guidance yesterday from the Conference Arrangements Committee concerning among other matters the framing of contemporary issues/resolutions for Annual Conference 2010.

The key section reads:

2. CAC's criteria for deciding if a contemporary resolution is valid

a. Contemporary resolutions submitted by CLPs and affiliated organisations must be on one subject and not exceed 250 words.

b. In deciding if a contemporary resolution is valid (contemporary) the CAC will consider the following points:

• Is the issue already addressed in the Conference agenda?
• Has the issue been dealt with by the NPF?
• Could the issue have been sent to the NPF or NEC before they published their work?

c. A resolution will be deemed to be contemporary if it refers to an issue which arose after the publication of the reports of the National Policy Forum (NPF), Policy Commissions or National Executive Committee on 31 July or has not been substantively addressed in those reports.

d. Copies of these reports will be sent to delegates in early September. In the meantime a list of the subjects dealt with by the policy commissions in 2010 is attachedtogether with a summary of the contents of the NEC Report to 2010 Conference. The 2010 Manifesto can be found on the party website at: http://www.labour.org.uk/home

e. Contemporary resolutions cannot be used to bypass either the NPF policy-making or NEC decision-making processes, or to change the procedure of Conference; or propose rule changes.

f. Issues defeated at the NPF and which failed to achieve the status of an alternative position at the NPF, cannot be raised at Conference as a contemporary resolution.

g. Contemporary resolutions cannot be used to overturn or revisit the agreed policy in the manifesto.

Strange really, I thought Labour lost the 2010 General Election. I know the Manifesto that was fixed by the former Leadership, excluding even modest amendments agreed by the Clause V committee.

Remember two bald men fighting over a comb?

Today is the deadline for Labour Party National Executive Committee candidates to confirm their willingness to stand for election in 2010 and submit a pic and 250-word statement. Mine was submitted yesterday - Special Delivery - so Billy (Hayes) I'm depending on your members to make sure my papers arrive before the deadline at 1700 Friday 6 August.

Two years ago I was a member of a slate mobilised by the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA). Then the CLGA was effectively run by two organisations, Save the Labour Party (StLP) and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD). StLP has never seen itself as a mass-membership organisation. That was and remains one of its ambitions for the Labour Party. Hail the day, when the Labour Party itself is an ethical, solvent, democratically-run, mass membership body. StLP actively campaigned to create the widest possible base on the centre-left of the Labour Party from which to draw candidates for the NEC. Compass was wooed. As was the Labour Representation Committee. It has proved a step too far in 2010. There is no Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate. Achieving a consensus proved impossible at a meeting in central London on Wednesday night.

I hope, foolishly no doubt, that there not be any point scoring from the right wing slate - Labour First. It would be reminiscent of General Alexander Haig's likening of the Falklands War in 1982 between the United Kingdom and Argentina to "two bald men fighting over a comb".

There is some very serious political thinking, campaigning and lobbying to be undertaken between now and Labour's Annual Conference at the end of September. In the first instance, there is Conference itself - another rally or a rekindling of political debate?

Then there are the questions of debate about what? Yesterday the New Statesman's Staggers blog trumpeted 'Labour will have just 13 days to decide its deficit policy' highlighting the time between the election/appointment of the new Leader's Shadow Cabinet and the Comprehensive Spending Review planned for 20 October. That is what every Labour Party member is up against: Westminster village commentators trying to set the agenda, when it is ours for the grasping. Conference should decide Labour's policies, including that for tackling the budget deficit. Labour ministers demonstrated their inadequacies deciding policies over the last 13 years. We don't want to run the risk of repeat mistakes in opposition.

What better opportunity for the Leadership candidates to draw a line under the past than by encouraging and enabling the Labour Party through its members and branches to get to grips with shaping the future at its annual 'parliament'? If they can't be bothered, be assured I will spend August doing my bit by hewing the words of contemporary issues/resolutions. They will be offered via this blog for contempt and derision, cutting and pasting, honing and polishing ready for that torturous journey of consideration, debate and amendment through branches, constituency parties to the Conference Arrangements Committee. At Conference itself delegates will take part in a Priorities Ballot to settle the subjects for debate, those chosen then involve compositing of the resolutions ruled in order. Then on to the Conference floor for debate and votes. 

So you could say that Labour has 50 days between now and the start of Conference to learn how to address the key issues facing the country. Conference can decide future direction That would leave the new Leader those 13 days after the Shadow Cabinet elections to shape a team to implement Labour Party policies.

It would be in very sharp contrast to the Conferences of our political opponents this year as their Leaders struggle to sell their Faustian pact to their increasingly restless members.

For Labour, the offer of a showcase of a new Leader listening and learning to inclusive, but outward looking debates both for opposition in Westminster and readiness for future government in Edinburgh and Cardiff, and hopefully Westminster sooner rather than later, really would be 'new politics', game on.