Tagged with Conference 2011

“Spring Revolt” sweeps Labour conference hall

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 who are entitled to have their voices heard. Patrick Denahy from Dewsbury complained that his local party had to wait 18 months for the NEC to “carefully consider” its four line rule change, while delegates on Sunday had to approve a 100-page rulebook it had received three hours earlier. Continue reading →

Ed’s speech: predators, producers and the proletariat

I cannot remember the last time I was wildly impressed by a leader’s set piece speech to a party conference. These days such perorations are designedly ephemeral affairs, calculated to grab the day’s headlines rather than define any lasting vision.

The words delivered by Ed Miliband yesterday are no exception, and in this case, have generated so much attention elsewhere that there is little point in undertaking a forensic dissection 24 hours after the event.

The consensus seems to be that the address marks some sort of break with New Labour. Unsympathetic commentators menacingly declare it to mark ‘a shift to the left’, and say that like it’s a bad thing; friendlier voices welcome it, in strikingly similar terms, as ‘a brave step to the centre-left’. Continue reading →

The wind of change is blowing through the Labour Party

For the first time in more than 15 years the true values and principles of the Labour Party were proclaimed by a Labour Leader in his Conference speech. Gone was the attempt to present modernisation as accommodating the banks, big business and of course the Murdoch press. Gone was the effort to align Labour with business irrespective of what business did, whether engaging in foreign speculation and exploitation of tax havens, sacking hundreds of workers, beating down the terms and conditions of workers by marginalising the unions, or demanding deregulation of environmental and labour safeguards. Yes, Labour is indeed pro-business, but of the producers not the predators, of real engineering and not financial engineering, of the responsible job creators and not the asset strippers. But that was not the heart of the speech. Continue reading →

Labour conference: resentment at manipulation grows

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 Parliamentary candidates into safe Labour seats. Continue reading →