Latest post on Left Futures

Will Ed order immediate publication of draft new Clause 1?

Today’s Guardian carried a story misleadingly headlined, Ed Miliband seeks to rewrite Labour’s founding principles. I think that should have read return to Labour’s founding principles. But as ever the devil is in the detail. What is the proposed new Clause 1?

There are lots of hints in the article. In the interests of openness and accountability abour Refounding Labour, I invite Ed Miliband to instruct the new General Secretary, Iain McNicol, to circulate the proposal to all constituency labour party (CLP) secretaries immediately. Otherwise we are going to have three weeks of speculation before Annual Conference 2011 about the wisdom or otherwise of the proposed change.

Twitter traffic since the story was first announced by the Guardian is indicative of how ideas sometimes develop a life of their own. I think Anthony Painter takes first prize for setting out the difference between a political party and a community organisation here. Luke Akehurst takes the wooden spoon for the most feeble justification for the proposed change.

@PeterKenyon it’s radical in that we haven’t been doing it in most of the country

There is a job to be done by the NEC ahead of Conference to amend the proposed change to make sure that the Party’s founding electoral focus is retained, whilst embracing the need for national/regional/local organisation and campaigning to achieve power and promote Labour values through legislation.

In the meantime, someone needs to wise up Ed Miliband about the shortcomings of community campaigning organisations from a political party perspective. What’s their business model? Are they securing monies at the expense of progressive political party membership?

Comments are closed.

© 2024 Left Futures | Powered by WordPress | theme originated from PrimePress by Ravi Varma