What makes a good policy process? A process that produces good policies, of course. Policies that are radical, innovative, resonate with our target voters and are up to dealing with the problems Labour will inherit. And Ed Miliband promised, through Refounding Labour, to give it to us – “to draw on the whole of our movement, to harness the ideas, innovation and expertise that lies within“.
But there is another aspect to a good policy process. It must energise and enthuse the membership, give them (and even activists outside the party, trade unionists, and those campaigning against NHS cuts, bedroom taxes, work capability assessments, tax avoidance and the rest) a sense of ownership, recognition that they are being heard. But we remain a long way from this — and it’s down to Ed, even though, back in his leadership campaign, he recognised how necessary it was: Continue reading
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 wide ranging policy discussions. Unfortunately the reality is that Refounding Labour passed by the London Labour Party. It’s run from HQ, and the only devolution that’s going is to town hall bosses. 
It was never going to be easy to make Labour, what its activists and supporters have always wanted, into a truly democratic party. Blair bequeathed a party in which the Cabinet was given its orders, the PLP was ignored, the NEC was neutered, and Conference had no role except as a setting for his own speech. If Conference was insubordinate enough to come up with a different view, it was told that that was the party’s view, quite separate from the government’s view. 
