Labour Democratic Network

LDN: Moving Forward

May 9, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Last weekend LDN met to discuss its future and potential programme. We were in mixed mood, delighted at Labour’s showing in the local elections across the country and worry about the continued democratic drift of our Party.

LDN — and its predecessor organisations Labour Reform and Save the Labour Party — has always — been committed to practical partnerships and practical politics. We want to champion the cause of Party democracy but also actively explore how we can better facilitate policy discussion and debate.

Over the coming months we will be aiming to focus on two new initiatives both which are designed to commemorate the life of our sadly departed comrade and colleague Martin Cook.

The first initiative will be focussed around ITC solutions to debate, discussion and policy making and we will be working with some of those who have been leaders in this field. Low cost but powerful ITC solutions offer us the chance to revolutionise participative politics in this country and LDN is committed to supporting the development of new tools and products that could be utilised by Labour and by progressive campaigns across the country.

Secondly, we will be actively seeking to revisit the Save The Labour Party’s LabOUR Commission, Renewal — a to way process for the 21st century. While the Commission’s existing report is a substantive one it was always designed to be an interim.

New of these initiatives will be posted here but if you think either or both of these of interest to you we would be happy to here from you. Contact either:

andy.howell@me.com

peter.g.kenyon@btinternet.com

Luke’s Bizarre Dossier!

March 19, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

Our old friend and comrade Luke Akehurst would regard himself as a prolific blogger. He’s recently penned one of occasionally strange pieces, “A dossier I compelled – and not anonymously“. I won’t bore you with the contents but this seems to be a repost to the anonymous dossier that has been going around and which focusses on Progress, to which comrade Akehurst is connected.

Luke’s dossier is really more of a rant and as such doesn’t really concern us. However, at one point he says of LDN:

This has now been replaced by the Labour Democratic Network – LDN which seems somewhat moribund as it last posted on its blog in November.

Comrade Luke, LDN is certainly not defunct. When the Party can’t manage to convene its own National Policy Forum for over twelve months, at a time when it is having a major policy review, there is clearly work to do.

But one thing. We are committed to action and pronouncements when we have something to say. Sometimes organisation is everything.

Comrade Akehurst would be rise not to confuse verbal diarrhoea with actual action. But then he is a prolific blogger!

It’s always quality that counts Luke, and not just quantity at any cost!

NEC CLP section nomination and election timetable – 2012

November 24, 2011 By Peter Kenyon 1 Comment

The Labour Democratic Network understands that full details will be sent to all interested parties by Head Office in December.

Nominations for the six NEC places elected by fully paid up members under OMOV have to be submitted by 30 March 2012.

Nominees require support of own CLP and two other CLPs from two different regions, and must have been in membership 12 months.

At least three elected candidates must be women.

We are still waiting for clarification of the precise dates for the issue of ballot papers and the close of the poll.

NEC report – 1 November 2011

November 18, 2011 By Ann Black Leave a Comment

The meeting after conference is always a marathon, reviewing the state of the party and planning the year ahead. First up was Tom Watson, deputy party Chair and campaign co-ordinator, praised for his tactics in the famous Hodge Hill by-election. Tom saw his role as mobilising members, consulting on policy and raising funds. At my suggestion he included a working return address in his latest e-mail, and had already replied to 500 messages. I said again that members want doorstep ammunition, visible leadership and rapid rebuttal of Tory lies. Others added hope in tough times: pensioners are losing part of their winter fuel allowance, the council tax freeze will cost more jobs, youth unemployment is at record levels and Labour cannot be neutral as public service workers defend their modest pensions.

The critical battle-grounds next year will be London, with the mayoral and assembly elections, and Scotland, where good council results would help to derail the independence bandwagon. Two weeks earlier the NEC’s organisation committee agreed to devolve many powers to the Scottish party, and authorised local organisation around Scottish rather than Westminster constituencies. This is the clear will of Scottish members, and I have asked only that the NEC is kept informed of developments.

Unmusical Chairs

Meanwhile the whole country is in the throes of the boundary review. In most regions Labour, working with MPs and local parties, has developed a united response to the initial proposals, but may have to adapt as other parties make submissions. The picture should be clearer by autumn 2012. Careers are at stake and the NEC wished to support MPs through traumatic times ahead, as well as constituency parties which will re-form on new boundaries from January 2013. Of course Labour is not the only party affected, and insecurity was thought to be fuelling rebellions. If Tory MPs have to compete with each other, better to keep their activists happy than try to please David Cameron.

A few more constituencies will be able to choose parliamentary candidates in the New Year and feedback from early selections is welcome, so we can modify procedures if necessary. Keith Vaz regretted that no ethnic minority candidates had yet been selected, and I am concerned that there are far more male than female applicants, making it hard to draw up gender-balanced shortlists. However these are opposition-held seats, meaning years of hard slog with no guarantee of reward, unappealing to those wanting a fast track. Last- minute retirements in plum seats will attract more interest.

Committees and Conferences

The meeting agreed the membership of subcommittees. The equalities committee, specified as 13 members, has 17, and the organisation committee now includes 27 of the 33 NEC members. (The joint policy committee has even more, but most of them don’t come to meetings.) I continue as a member of the prosperity and work policy commission, where Jennie Formby of Unite takes over as co- convenor.

This year 630 delegates from 522 constituencies attended conference, the highest since before 2002 (570 delegates from 527 constituencies) and well up from the 412 constituencies represented in 2010. Liverpool was praised for the weather and the spacious dockside site, though accommodation costs, at £70 – £100 a night, were high. As usual the biggest complaint was too little time for delegates, with only nine speakers on health, and some suggested culling videos and pre- scripted panel discussions.

Refounding Labour: Next Steps

Peter Hain and Alicia Kennedy introduced a guide to implementation which takes forward the 124 recommendations agreed at conference. This, and much other material, is available athttp://members.labour.org.uk/refoundinglabourandyou , or I can mail copies. A working group will oversee progress, with a separate group on achieving gender balance in the leadership team. New youth structures will be phased in through 2012 and 2013 and NEC Chair Michael Cashman will meet members in Northern Ireland, reporting back in March 2012. Model contracts for parliamentary candidates are being drafted, with Scotland and Wales responsible for MSPs and AMs, and European variants will be agreed in autumn 2012 together with procedures for selecting Euro-candidates.

Councillors will pay the new 2% levy from May 2012. Much heated reaction was reported, but their representatives were pleased with the improved legal services, campaign materials, training and support which this will buy. I emphasised that the new local campaign forums needed flexibility and a role in policy, particularly where there are few or no Labour councillors. In October councillors were consulted on ways of improving candidate selection, and local parties have now also been asked to comment: ideas can be sent to councillors@labour.org.uk . On the technical side membersnet will be revamped, and requests were again made for the party telephone line to be open throughout the day and evening.

Peter Hain’s top priority was to register 100,000s of supporters, building a massive database for fundraising and communication. All supporters, whether joining nationally or locally, would be checked against Contact Creator and details supplied to constituencies, and their status would be verified before a leadership election. The guide guarantees that locally-collected e-mail addresses will not be used for national spam or pleas for money, though Peter is keen to revisit this. I still have reservations, but the French experience, where nearly three million people paid a euro each to vote for the socialist presidential candidate, has caused me to think about the positive potential of wider engagement.

Parliamentary Report

Ed Miliband joined us in the afternoon. He thought the economic argument was shifting, and rising unemployment showed the need for alternatives. This was a crisis about growth, not just the deficit, and the kind of economy that we should build. Ed Balls’ five-point plan would tax bank bonuses to fund jobs for young people; invest in infrastructure; cut VAT to relieve family budgets; reduce VAT to 5% on home improvements and repairs; and give tax breaks to small businesses hiring extra workers. The St Paul’s protests showed that the system is failing, and Labour should speak out on top pay and argue for rules which reward hard-working families. Andy Burnham was attacking the Tories on the NHS, where patient experience was deteriorating and waiting times were rising. All this was well received.

Tackled on public service pensions, Ed Miliband felt that maximum pressure should be exerted before 30 November, so that if strikes went ahead it would be clear that the government was to blame. He agreed that the living wage is an idea whose time has come, and he was talking with business minister Chuka Umunna about Labour’s response to attacks on employment rights, particularly charging for employment tribunals and restricting claims for unfair dismissal. For young people Labour would cap student fees at £6,000, and review whether to restore the educational maintenance allowance.

Ed Miliband believed the Tories were alarmed about falling support among women, and this explained David Cameron’s flurry of announcements on elective Caesareans, easier adoption and allowing royal women equal succession rights. None of these would tackle women’s basic need for jobs, fair pay, public services and security for themselves and their families. Nor would they protect an estimated 25,000 women every year who suffer domestic violence but would no longer be able to get legal aid.

I asked about the mystery policy documents, launched at conference without being seen by MPs, the national policy forum or the NEC. Ed Miliband said they came from the shadow cabinet groups: he had not intended to bypass party structures, and the NEC should have been kept informed. I would hope for more of a partnership, along the lines of his wide-ranging discussions before the 2010 election.

This linked into a presentation on Partnership into Power. Liam Byrne’s New Politics Fresh Ideas exercise made four million contacts and gathered 6,000 written responses. However submissions on policy- making processes showed a degree of cynicism. Peter Hain said that some people wanted more time and comments would be accepted at http://members.labour.org.uk/policymaking up to 31 January 2012, though I suspect this is more about cutting the union share of the conference vote than addressing deeper issues. The next national policy forum will not be till summer 2012, particularly frustrating for constituency representatives who wonder they bothered. It was suggested that they could lead further consultation, but members are tired of talking about structures: they want engagement and action.

Going Forward

Harriet Harman said that it was important to blend political and organisational strategies, and others emphasised the need to work in every seat, not just the marginals. They asked for campaign materials which are straightforward but not patronising. Iain McNicol reported on the management and commercial review led by Charles Allen, and gave an update on finances. One point deserves wider publicity: the press often claim that Labour is wholly dependent on the unions, but this is because only large donations must be declared to, and published by, the electoral commission. In fact over a third of our income is from members’ subscriptions and small donations, and union funding is itself composed of a few pounds each from millions of individual levy-payers. Lies, damn lies and statistics …

And finally alert members may have noticed that e-mails from the party are now suffixed @labour.org.uk rather than @new.labour.org.uk … so we are once again plain Labour and proud of it.

Questions and comments are welcome, and I am happy for this to be circulated to members as a personal account, not an official record. Reports of meetings from July 2008 onwards are at http://www.labourblogs.com/public-blog/annblack, with earlier reports at www.annblack.com.

Ann Black, 88 Howard Street, Oxford OX4 3BE, 07956-637958, annblack50@btinternet.com

Refounding Labour – New Rules: an example

November 7, 2011 By David Gardner Leave a Comment

This is how the new rules could apply to the Westminster parliamentary constituency of Greenwich and Woolwich. This paper has been circulated to branches for consultation.

A new rule book was agreed at 2011 Annual Conference. While our Constituency Labour Party (CLP) objected, on the grounds that most of the changes had not been subject at all to consultation, and that we had just a few days’ notice, nevertheless they were approved and must be implemented. Key decisions for the CLP are:

Annual Meeting (AGM) Dates – under the new rules this should be held in or after May. Branch AGMs are not set down by the rules (January is deleted) but advice is they should be after elections. Currently, we have the Branch AGMs in early-mid January and the CLP AGM at the end of February. We could:

Hold Branch AGMs and CLP AGMs all in May
Hold Branch AGMs in May and the CLP AGM in June
Hold both the Branch and CLP AGMs in June

Delegate or General Meetings – Currently, we have a delegate General Committee (with delegates from Branches and affiliated organisations but we open all GCs to all members and have made a number of them all-member meetings with invites to everyone. Though any voting is by delegates only, the one exception being when we did our leadership and National Executive nominations. Two options:

We can keep the current delegate structures allowing a fair representation across all branches and affiliates, but opening meetings for wider participation and have a number of all-member meetings
We could have General Meetings only, with no delegates. The full membership would then elect the Officers and executive as well as take decisions on resolutions. Thus no delegates would be elected, and any member could attend, vote and stand. Members would be able to attend and vote at both their Branch and constituency meeting; it may therefore blur their distinctive roles.

Officers – The CLP currently has 8 Executive officers. The new rules provide for a base of just 5 with a number of co-ordinators (functional officers) though there is the option to have more Executive Officers if we choose.

Have just 5 Executive officers (Chair, Vice Chair Membership; Vice Chair Campaigns; Secretary and Treasurer of which at least two must be women
Have 6 Executive Officers (above 5 plus Equalities Officer) of which three would be women. The Equalities Officer would co-ordinate the roles currently carried out by Ethnic Minorities Officer, Women’s officer, Youth & Student officer and Disabilities officer)
Retain current 8 Exec Officers with at least 4 women. This would need approval

Co-ordinators – we need to refresh the functional officer roles as Co-ordinators. This may mean we want to rationalise the roles and rather than having job shares to have teams.

Local Campaign Forum (LCF) – The new rules replace the Local Government Committee with a re-focussed Local Campaign Forum for co-ordinating council elections, selections and liaison with the Labour Group. The CLPs in Greenwich will need to collectively determine their preferred model but in general it will meet less frequently and be much slimmer (currently 65 members altogether). The Management and Executive Committees can be replaced by a single unitary body. Options include:

A unitary LCF of 10 Party delegates (4 G&W CLP), 1 Co-op plus Group Leader and Deputy. This could be supplemented by a Borough Conference open to all Labour councillors and either all members or all CLP GC delegates which would be at least annual but possibly more frequently to help develop policy and policy commissions which would draw from the wider membership and be co-chaired by Party and group co-ordinators.
A unitary LCF of 17 Party delegates (7 G&W CLP), 2 Co-op plus leadership. Again, this could be supplemented by a borough Conference and policy commissions
A Management Committee of 39 Party delegates (16 G&W which could be 2 per BLP plus Chair and Sec); 4 Co-op and Group leadership. This would need a separate Executive.
A Management Committee broadly as currently of 55 Party delegates (22 G&W CLP) plus 5 Co-op and group leadership. Again, a separate Executive.

Labour Democratic Network

LDN: Moving Forward

Luke’s Bizarre Dossier!

NEC CLP section nomination and election timetable – 2012

NEC report – 1 November 2011

Refounding Labour – New Rules: an example

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