The “Corbyn surge” which first began in summer 2015 was made up of people, inside the Labour Party and outside it, who wanted a new kind of politics and recognised that Jeremy embodied it. Most of them were happy to join, or rejoin the Party, but they also wanted more – a social movement which […]
Labour would have done better without a campaign to undermine Jeremy
May 15th, 2016 by Christine Shawcroft.How many successful elections has Jeremy Corbyn got to preside over before his critics concede he may have something going for him? And when are they going to run out of excuses to explain away his results? Last summer, as people flocked to join his campaign in their tens of thousands, packing out his meetings […]
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Christine Shawcroft reports back on Labour’s June executive
Jun 4th, 2014 by Christine Shawcroft.Short Report of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting held on 3 June 2014 (a more complete report will follow) The most controversial part of this meeting came right at the end when a reference from the Organisation committee was brought up. Several seats where women were standing down at the General Election had come up […]
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Christine Shawcroft reports back on Labour’s March executive
Mar 26th, 2014 by Christine Shawcroft.Report of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting held on 25 March 2014 We usually have obituaries at NEC meetings, mostly of people I never knew, but this time it was for someone who I knew very well. The Chair asked if anyone wanted to add anything to Tony Benn’s printed obituary, but we’ve all said […]
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Christine Shawcroft reports back on Labour’s September executive
Sep 18th, 2013 by Christine Shawcroft.Report of the national executive committee (NEC) meeting held on 17 September 2013 The NEC before Conference is usually dominated by conference arrangements, arguing about constitutional amendments, and so on, but this meeting was overshadowed by the Collins review of party “reform”. Not that anyone’s seen it yet. What I find hard to take is the […]
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Have the feminists won, or did Blairism see us off?
Apr 3rd, 2013 by Christine Shawcroft.NEC member Christine Shawcroft looks at the history of women’s organisation in the Labour Party. When I first tried setting up local women’s organisations in the Labour Party, it was the late 70s and they were generally known as Ladies’ Sections. The word “women” was considered rather uncouth. You needed the agreement of your (overwhelmingly […]
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Christine Shawcroft reports back from Labour’s March executive
Mar 25th, 2013 by Christine Shawcroft.Report of the national executive committee meeting held on 19 March 2013 There was a great deal of chopping and changing with the agenda, as we were visited by Ed Balls and Jon Cruddas as well as Ed Miliband giving the usual Leader’s Report, and they were all available at different times. However, the meeting was […]
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Christine Shawcroft’s report from Labour’s November executive
Dec 3rd, 2012 by Christine Shawcroft.National Executive held on 27 November at Labour HQ Every November, Labour’s national executive has an extended session to discuss aims and objectives and a work plan for the year ahead. In the past this has been a two day Awayday session of mind numbing tediousness. To save money, the two days was cut to one. […]
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Report of Labour’s July national executive
Jul 23rd, 2012 by Christine Shawcroft.National Executive Committee, 17 July 2012, at 1 Brewers Green. This meeting was held a week early to avoid the Parliamentary recess. It was mostly divided between reporting back from the National Policy Forum and planning for Annual Conference. General Secretary’s report Iain McNicol reported on his first year in post and the restructuring he […]
