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.