Were you or your local party consulted about our new commitments on freezing public sector pay or not reversing Tory cuts? No? And what about or policy review more generally — have you felt any more involved than you did in the New Labour years? We thought not. As it happens, you’ve got one more week [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Party Rules’
Thurrock selection: stitch-up or not, Labour’s process stinks
Nov 15th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Labour’s parliamentary selection process comes under the spotlight again as criticisms are made of the process in Thurrock, Essex. Sarah Mackinlay, the daughter of Andrew Mackinlay who lost the seat last year retired at the general election, has been kept off the shortlist of two but Polly Billington, a close aide to Ed Miliband, has [...]
“Spring Revolt” sweeps Labour conference hall
Sep 28th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.After days of frustration at continuing manipulation of the conference agenda by party managers, a “spring revolt” broke out in Labour’s conference this morning. As a number of rule changes were proposed by constituency delegates, speaker after speaker spoke to loud applause and cheers in favour of the need for fairness and justice for constituency members [...]
Labour conference: resentment at manipulation grows
Sep 27th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.This morning, Labour’s conference gave another indication that its patience with party managers’ manipulation is running out. We reported the noisy dissatisfaction on Sunday with the railroading of Refounding Labour. This morning, they clearly resented the further gagging of those constituencies who proposed a rule change 18 months ago designed to prevent the “parachuting‟ of [...]
Proposed ban on parachuting candidates into safe seats blocked by sharp practice
Sep 27th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.First we had the stitch-up. Then the farce. But today, Labour’s party managers have excelled themselves in their cynical manipulation of Labour’s conference agenda. The Conference Arrangements Committee, in its interpretation of the rulebook, has added new dimensions to the elasticity of meaning. Delegates from six constituency parties (Amber Valley, Blackpool South, Caerphilly, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Newport West, [...]
Refounding Labour – from stitch up to farce
Sep 26th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Giving registered supporters a vote in the leadership election is not popular with constituency parties who are concerned about devaluing party membership. And it’s not popular with trade unions, whose levy payers do pay a great deal of money to the party and who now, potentially, could have less influence. The precise way in which [...]
Control freakery still rules OK at Labour conference
Sep 23rd, 2011 by Jon Lansman.If you are in any doubt about the extent of control freakery operating still in the Labour Party, take a look at the contemporary motions. Gordon Brown had abolished these back in 2007 just after becoming leader – they were the last chance left for conference to vote on policy issues. Until then, most had [...]
Party democracy is being stitched up at Labour’s conference
Sep 22nd, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Two key changes were needed to make good Ed Miliband’s promise of a change of direction at his election to the leadership. One was obviously a shift away from New Labour’s Faustian deal with neo-liberal capitalism and Blair-Brown’s accommodation with the banks, big business and Murdoch press in support of deregulated finance and privatised free [...]
Refounding Labour – avoiding a shabby stitch-up is still (just) possible
Sep 22nd, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Yesterday, we reported on the transparency and accountability in how Refounding Labor has been handled and the shameful farce of putting the whole package to conference as a package with a single debate and vote. Today we discover that there isn’t even going to be a real debate, time perhaps for two or three CLP [...]
Refounding Labour: political homeopathy
Sep 21st, 2011 by David Osler.Interestingly enough, Peter Hain is one of the few people with credibility in public life openly to champion homeopathy. So to his way of thinking, it presumably follows that by diluting the influence of unions in the Labour Party, Refounding Labour will ultimately make them that much stronger. The only snag is that the particular form [...]
