AUTUMN EDITION 2011 ISSUE NO 74 PRODUCTION EDITOR: RAY DAVISON EAST DEVON CLP AND CLPD SW REGIONAL ORGANISER CLPD publication for CLPs and Labour Party Members www.clpd.org.uk (where this newsletter can be downloaded). For detailed and exclusive NEC and NPF reports, internal All enquiries: [email protected] Party news and debates including Shenanigans, visit www.grassrootslabour.net and for lively Telephone 01395 277481 debates where you can contribute, visit www.leftfutures.org or twitter.com/clpd_labour or email CLPD: [email protected] Content highlights WINNING IT FOR 2011 LABOUR n Ken Livingstone: Winning it for Labour n Peter Willsman: ANNUAL KEN LIVINGSTONE an informal understanding that when Boris CONFERENCE plans to go off the reservation, he will alert ALERT: Refounding Labour, a The London May- the high command.” disappointment, key rule change oral election is the He says the government is “absolutely proposals from CLPs right to make cuts” and there is no part of largest single elec- n Simon Weller: Defending the link government that’s moved “so far and so fast toral battleground n Forward to to make cuts” as he has. Kelvin Hopkins MP: before the general socialist policies He failed to stand up for Londoners over election. It gives n Focus on the Middle higher student fees and cuts to EMA. Mark Seddon: Labour the very East real possibility of He has concentrated on taxing London- n Mohammed Azam: British an historic bomb- ers through above-inflation fare increases. A single bus fare by Oyster has increased by 44 politicians need to address far right shell victory. terror threat now! I say bombshell because we must be clear per cent. His business plan commits London n Andy Newman: Could the general the Tory candidate starts this campaign with to fare rises of inflation plus two per cent for election have been won? the money, incumbency and media support twenty years. n Barry Gray: Blue no way forward in his favour. Johnson’s campaign to cut the top rate of for Labour So this will be a hard-fought campaign. We tax – while raising travel fares – favours the n A start this campaign as the fighting underdog. wealthiest at the expense of the overwhelm- Councillor Angela Cornforth: look at the NPF Our strength is the enthusiasm factor of ing majority of Londoners. n So, what happened in our grassroots campaign. We have reached (cont. overleaf) Maria Fyfe: out to Londoners in all parts of the city Scotland? n through our weekly phone-bank in Party Becky Hodgson: NPF youth report headquarters. In one month we contacted ANNUAL CONFERENCE ALERT 2011 n Darren Williams: NPF Welsh CLPs more people in Bromley than in the previous representative, NPF report fifteen years. That kind of enthusiasm can- n Gordon Wills: The Tory coalition’s not be bought. REFOUNDING health policy – how should Labour We will put London first. At each stage LABOUR A respond? Boris Johnson has failed that test. When the n Billy Hayes: Why trade unions must first stories of phone-hacking were pub- DISAPPOINTMENT defend multi-culturalism lished Johnson protected his friends in the n Tel’s Tales, Blairite myth-making et al Conservative Party and News International, PETER WILLSMAN, n Ray Davison: Review, Suze Rotolo’s attacking the stories as ‘codswallop cooked A Freewheelin’ Time up by the Labour Party.’ SECRETARY CLPD n Callum Munro: NEC report The Tories’ strategy is for Boris Johnson n Jim Mallory: Canadian elections in to differentiate himself from the Tory-led This initiative has been driven by Ed Miliband focus and Peter Hain (Chair of the National Policy government to avoid electoral flak. But in n David L. Gardner: Refounding doing so he shows how much of a Tory he Forum) and it promised much. CLPs, unions Labour – a hidden threat to local really is. As Benedict Brogan of the Telegraph and individuals responded in considerable accountability numbers, making a wide range of suggestions has reported, this is “an agreed strategy rath- n CLPD TUC fringe and conference for reform. Party members saw this as a er than a unilateral declaration of independ- highlights chance to start afresh after the banality and ence.” Brogan reports: “In the near daily n Bitebacks – the ever snappier shots control freakery of so-called ‘New Labour’. exchanges of text messages between the from a political sniper three [Cameron, Johnson, Osborne], there is (cont. overleaf) PLEASE PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO ENSURE A WIDE CIRCULATION. CAMPAIGN BRIEFING AUTUMN EDITION 2011 WINNING IT FOR REFOUNDING LABOUR A DISAPPOINTMENT LABOUR (cont. from p1) (cont. from p1) Discussions are continuing during the weeks want to reduce the number of union reps When the Mayor of London is paid leading up to Party Conference, but what is on the National Conference Arrangements £250,000 a year by a newspaper to write a taking shape is hardly a qualitative change. Committee. weekly column – £100,000 more than his The final document, being put together Many submissions to Refounding La- mayoral salary – then something is wrong. by Ed and Peter, is certainly not banal and bour, including from unions, pointed out Even more so when he dismisses that salary makes an effort to respond to many of the that CLPs are underrepresented on the NEC as ‘chicken feed’. Under Boris Johnson twen- suggestions made by Party organisation and compared to the unions (6 seats against 12) ty-eight staff members in the Greater London members. But in places there seems to be a and that the NPF needs root and branch Authority are earning more than £100,000, lack of appreciation of the importance of reform. E and P seem to be ignoring these compared with sixteen three years ago. the formal institutions of Party democracy suggestions. Instead they are proposing that Boris Johnson, by not standing up for and there is a major attack on the power of the powers of the Leader are greatly en- London, has made Londoners less well off the unions within our Party. hanced at the expense of the NEC. They and less safe. His approach is to cut the po- Several Party leaders in the recent past also want formal LGCs, District and County lice, not crime. have carried out consultation exercises about Parties replaced by nebulous small groups of Burglaries, robberies and muggings Party democracy. But it became clear that local officers, which would undermine the are on the rise. Injured knife crime victims these were largely phony in that the leaders opportunity to make Labour Groups and aged thirteen to twenty-four have increased knew what the results were going to be be- their leaders properly accountable. On the by more than thirty per cent under Boris fore the exercises took place. In each case more positive side, E and P are proposing Johnson. Yet his own figures show that he the fact that few of the responses supported that changes to PLP standing orders should will cut 1,800 uniformed police officers by the Leader’s position made no difference. be voted on at Annual Conference and they 2013/2014. He’s watering down the deploy- The ‘consultation’ was used as a cover for float the option of a local electoral college to ment of local neighbourhood police teams putting forward what the Leader had always elect Labour Group leaders. Unfortunately and forcing local police sergeants to reapply wanted. Unfortunately there is a strong sus- the latter proposal does not appear in the for their own jobs. picion that, to some extent, the same applies most recent draft from E and P. My approach will be to protect London- to Refounding Labour, particularly in rela- At Liverpool delegates will be faced with ers in tough economic times. I will tear up the tion to giving ‘registered supporters’ votes in a final document from E and P that is likely inflation-plus-two-percent fare rise plan. I will leadership elections, and in relation to reduc- to be tabled as an NEC document. There protect front line police services. I will work ing the union vote at Annual Conference. may be undemocratic attempts to force this with young people and students instead of Our Party has some 3 million affiliated through in the ‘New Labour’ way of take-it- backing Tory government attacks on them. I members who pay the political levy through or-leave-it. Delegates are also likely to face a will do only the job of mayor, and no other, their unions. This was always spelt out at the range of associated rule change proposals to and freeze the pay of my senior political ap- very beginning of the Party’s Constitution various parts of the Rule Book. Even ‘New pointments. I will take no pay rise myself and as follows – “There shall be two classes of Labour’ never attempted to force a decision fight to put Londoners back to work. members, namely; (a) Affiliated members (b) on many different rule changes into one om- If you want to make a difference, be part Individual members”. This clause has never nibus vote. of the grassroots movement to put London been removed by Annual Conference but, on the right track, and help put Londoners during the various consolidations and re- first, visit my website at www.kenlivingstone. jiggings of the Rule Book, it seems to have BITEBACKS com/difference. been lost sight of. For example, the pro- posal for ‘registered supporters’ completely ignores the fact that some 3 million of our ‘It was precisely the New Labour BITEBACKS supporters are already members, i.e.