The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) held its Annual General Meeting, its fortieth, last Saturday at Conway Hall in central London. Coming up to 40 – it was actually founded later in the year – it may now be the oldest pressure group operating within the Labour Party (though there are some older affiliated […]
Posts Tagged ‘Party democracy’
London Labour: in need of some refounding
Feb 20th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.In a packed hall a mile from London’s Olympic park, the London Labour Party’s biennial conference was in bullish mood this last weekend. In spite of the loss of last year’s mayoral election, delegates and platform alike sounded confident that London Labour is in good shape electorally, as well as determined and radical in its […]
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Why you should attend CLPD’s AGM
Feb 9th, 2013 by Newsdesk.The Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) will hold its Annual General Meeting at 11.30am (till approx 4.30pm with break for lunch) on Saturday 23 February at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, in Central London. Non-members are welcome to attend the meeting as participating observers. This will be CLPD’s 40th AGM, and will be opened by […]
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The cost of Young Labour democracy: £30 per person per night
Jan 31st, 2013 by Caroline Hill.Every year the monster of getting as many members as possible to a conference rears its ugly and expensive head. Hundreds of 14 to 26 year-old members will be heading to Leicester in March for Labour’s Youth Conference, but it’s not really a question of “is there any room at the inn?” Instead, “There’s very […]
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Labour candidate selection: UPDATE
Jan 24th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Yesterday we reported on changes to Labour’s parliamentary candidate selection procedures. We did so on having spoken to members of the executive about the meeting and the content of the papers they had received. Unfortunately, we got it wrong in some respects — and fortunately the changes turn out to be better than we’d understood […]
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Labour executive tinkers with candidate selection but radical surgery needed
Jan 23rd, 2013 by Jon Lansman.(With Postscript on by-elections and late selections and please also see this update) Selecting a parliamentary candidate in a winnable seat is perhaps the greatest influence a party member has on the political process. And it might happen only once in 20 or 30 years. You would think Labour’s national executive would give it serious […]
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Let’s make Young Labour accountable
Oct 23rd, 2012 by Conrad Landin.As elections for the national committee of Young Labour loom on the horizon, young members will be asking: what did they ever do for us? You might think this unfair. It’s possible that the committee members work very hard (I know, in fact, of a number that do.) But with no accountability and no sense […]
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The state of party conference: fixing, stage management and interior decoration
Oct 9th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.Labour conference last week was as frustrating as ever. Stage management is thriving: new decor, billowing flags, ever changing sofa arrangements. Orchestrated panel discussions on the sofa and lectures from American philosophers still take precedence over delegates. Much effort is still made to control what gets onto the agenda, and who gets to speak. It […]
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Party democracy and the pay freeze: Ed answers
Oct 3rd, 2012 by Newsdesk.Ed Miliband took questions from Labour delegates this afternoon in a wide-ranging session that covered everything from school food to Trident. A member of the party’s policy forum, speaking after the session, commented: “I’ve never seen a Q&A so free. I’m used to this slot being stage-managed and controlled.” He received one of his strongest […]
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Ed fails to deliver on his promise of empowering members
Sep 26th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.At Labour’s national executive yesterday, Ed Miliband failed to deliver on his leadership campaign promise to give members more say in policy making. The final package of Refounding Labour measures they have agreed is shrouded in the language of empowering members, as were those introduced by Tony Blair in 1997 and Gordon Brown in 2007. The reality, […]
