Conference has moved on from the days of pre-dawn NEC meetings, knife-edge votes on foundation hospitals and Iraq, lobbying by delegates and rushing through the scrum of microphones to the hall. The NEC no longer discusses resolutions, but waves them through regardless. So we met just twice during the week. On Saturday 21 September Ed Miliband told us that he had listened to the NEC and decided that Labour would scrap the bedroom tax. This was applauded, with pleas for more rabbits to be pulled out of the hat on Tuesday. We didn’t get nationalisation of the railways or Royal Mail, though the freeze in fuel prices until 2017 was warmly received.

On Tuesday 24 September the NEC reviewed the week with some satisfaction. Ed Miliband’s speech was appreciated in the conference hall and by the wider television audience, with specific campaign pledges, a sense of direction and a vision for the country. Since then the Tories have switched from describing him as weak to describing him as dangerous. This is a definite improvement as long as he keeps the right enemies: the over-powerful, the uncaring, the vested interests. Continue reading →

Ed Miliband said that annual conference would be an opportunity to show the real differences which a Labour government would bring to people’s lives.  He had started at the TUC by strongly attacking zero-hours contracts, and hoped we would be pleasantly surprised by the policies to be unveiled in Brighton.  Despite the rosy Cameron / Osborne claims, living standards had fallen in 38 of the last 39 months, and this was not a side-effect of their economic policy; it was their economic policy.

Many of us praised Labour’s decision to vote against attacking Syria.  The government defeat led to president Obama’s decision to consult congress and a delay following which, within a month, Syria’s chemical weapons are being destroyed by mutual agreement.  While the situation is still appalling, bombing Damascus would not have helped the beleaguered citizens, and the lessons of Iraq – waiting for the weapons inspectors, involving the United Nations – have borne fruit. Continue reading →