Posts Tagged ‘NPF’

Deciding on a coalition: should Labour follow Attlee or MacDonald?

by Jon Lansman.

Labour has had two experiences of formal coalition. In the first, its leader chose not to consult the party which was very divided about his austerity programme, and chose to go into coalition with the Tories and Liberals. This split the party which didn’t form a majority government for 14 years. In the second, the leader […]

Ann Black’s report from Labour’s November executive

by Ann Black.

National Executive Committee, 4 November 2014 As usual the first meeting after conference was an extended session, setting strategy for the year ahead, with general election victory the over-riding objective.  Presentations showed an impressive level of organisation on the ground and increasingly sophisticated online operations.  The Tories will massively outspend us and regular donations from thousands of […]

Ann Black’s report from Labour’s executive in September

by Ann Black.

National Executive Committee, September 2014 September was a strange month, with the lead-up to annual conference dominated by suspense over Scotland. The NEC meeting scheduled for Tuesday 16 September was moved to Glasgow so we could all pitch in, and then cancelled as bad weather disrupted travel. Many staff and activists came straight from the campaign […]

Unions have united for Labour victory. The party must respond to union concerns

by Billy Hayes.

All the signs are that Labour can form a majority government in 2015. Lord Ashcroft’s larger opinion polls all indicate that the Tories and Lib Dems are going to lose a lot of seats to Labour. David Cameron seems to agree. This realisation forced him into a large Cabinet reshuffle in an attempt to find […]

Labour’s economic policy – a lingering attachment to austerity

by Peter Kenyon.

There was nothing subtle about economic policy under New Labour. ‘We are getting into bed with business‘. Fingers to the hoi polloi. ‘You’ve got nowhere else to go‘. People in their millions voted blindly for it in 1997. A significant proportion got wise by 2001 and placed their ‘X’ elsewhere or decided ‘None of the […]

Ann Black’s report from Labour’s July executive

by Ann Black.

National Executive Committee, 22 July 2014 NEC meetings always start with tributes to members who have died, and in July these included Bob Jones, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands, who was just 59.  The by-election for the PCC was triggered, disrespectfully, even before his funeral, and would be held on 21 August.  […]

Ann Black reports on Labour’s national policy forum

by Ann Black.

Milton Keynes, 18/20 July 2014 Like the last pre-election Forum in 2008 this was held on the hottest weekend of the year, but there the similarities ceased, and not just with the move from Warwick University to Milton Keynes.  For the most part constructive dialogue and willingness to compromise outweighed arm- twisting, and all sections […]

Trade unions vote against ending austerity in 2015

by Jon Lansman.

The climax of Labour’s formal policy process this weekend which had involved 1,300 amendments from local parties to eight policy documents, filtered down and composited by 77 regional representatives, was a debate on austerity. That’s fitting given that it is the foundation of the Coalition’s disastrous economic policy and, unfortunately, in a lighter version, of Ed Balls’s approach too. […]

If unions simply vote for what they believe, Labour can present a bold popular programme

by Jon Lansman.

Doubts about tomorrow’s meeting of Labour’s national policy forum have already been raised by Jon Cruddas’s comments (£) about the “dead hand” of central control, which I argued remained a problem because of mistakes by Ed Miliband. Of course, party managers have ensured that Cruddas and policy forum chair, Angela Eagle, attempt to present a picture of Labour “united […]

Labour’s policy process: the stitch ups of old

by Peter Willsman.

This weekend, Labour’s national policy forum (NPF) meets in Milton Keynes for the last time before the general election. It will agree a programme which will be put to Labour Party conference for agreement in September. The last time the forum met to do this, known as “Warwick II”, was in 2008 with Gordon Brown as […]

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