Saturday, September 17, 2011

Email to members of Labour's NEC at 13.38 today.

To all members

Dear ....

As you know, final recommendations arising from the Refounding Labour consultation will be going to the NEC next Tuesday, ahead of consideration by the Annual Conference in Liverpool.

Peter Hain promised to keep you up to date with developments and wanted me to provide you with a summary of the some of the recommendations agreed by the recent Organisation Committee, and which will be discussed by the NEC next Tuesday.

The Committee is acutely aware that delegates will be receiving the final recommendations for consideration quite close to Conference, and was therefore keen for these initial conclusions to be communicated now.

The Committee agreed in principle that rules changes will be proposed in the following areas:

Purpose and objects

  • Clause I concerning the party's objects will be updated, giving greater emphasis to Labour's role in local communities.

Rights and responsibilities

  • Rights and responsibilities of the party leader will be defined for the first time, including control over appointments to the Shadow Cabinet.
  • Rights and responsibilities of Labour candidates and elected representatives will be defined, and provisions made for the use of model contracts.
  • Rights and responsibilities of elected members of the Parliamentary Labour Party will be defined, including the right to be consulted on any positions taken by the leadership in the context of a hung Parliament.
  • The ALC subscription will be abolished and councillors will instead, in line with other Labour representatives, pay a 2 per cent levy on total income arising from their elected role.

Enabling structures

  • Local Government Committees will be replaced by Local Campaign Forums (LCF), which will allow for local adaptation and different models of structure and membership. LCFs may apply to the NEC to pilot new and innovative procedures for selections. CLPs will be free to adopt different models of organisation to suit local circumstances, with certain common features, to allow joint working across constituency and geographical boundaries. There will be a new model of CLP finances to help redistribute resources more equally, and lift struggling CLPs out of debt.

Encouraging recruitment

  • The minimum age for becoming an individual member of the party will be lowered from 15 to 14 years old. There will be a lower local join rate for new members, to encourage recruitment.

Policy making

  • We will open up the process to ensure a greater voice for members in a system that is more transparent and accountable, and which reaches out to the public. We will create a process that ensures the voices of young members, women, BAME, disabled, LGBT and other under-represented members are heard in policy development. One representative from Labour International will be added to the membership of the NPF; and a textual omission regarding the Northern Ireland CLP, which already has one representative, will be corrected.

A bigger voice for councillors

  • The Leader of the LGA shall have the right to attend meetings of the political Shadow Cabinet when in opposition and the political Cabinet when in government. There will be better services provided for our councillors with a new website and enhanced online facilities, more training, design support for templates, and increased support for all Labour groups, large and small.

Full details of the actual textual rule book changes arising from these points will be sent to you as soon as the NEC has agreed the final recommendations to be put to Conference. The above recommendations do not represent the full extent of the changes likely to be proposed from Refounding Labour, and further issues are currently under consideration.

In addition, a number of reforms that do not require rule changes, such as new and improved technology for communication across the party, will also be proposed as part of the overall Refounding Labour package, and we will endeavour to ensure that you receive details of the final recommendations as soon as possible.

I hope this information is helpful and I will be in touch with further updates in due course.

Yours sincerely

Ray Collins signature

Ray Collins

General Secretary

10 comments:

Robert said...

Interesting, but again do I think this is anything other then giving the leadership more power.

Harry Barnes said...

That's the point Robert

Robert said...

Little wonder membership is again dropping like a stone.

Harry Barnes said...

Those who have left should join the Co-op Party.

Robert said...

I've been a member since I was sixteen sadly they are just as new labour as the other lot.

Harry Barnes said...

Yet they have a co-operative rhetoric which fits uneasily with New Labour.

There is, of course, nothing that was ever 'new' about New Labour even though Blair and his followers have little sense of history. They go back to both the Lib-Labism of the 1870s and the free enterprise liberalism of even earlier.

Robert said...

As you know I've a disability Paraplegia, I use to go to the conference, I use to spend ages at meetings, and I saw with my own eyes the changing in the ideals of labour and the coop party, I even started to feel guilty going to meetings as both sections of the party talked about scroungers cheats and work shy. I even had a phone call from labour party office saying it was my duty to look for work and would I like to be part of labour back to work group. At the time doctors were discussing amputation of both my legs from the hip.

I think Labour in it's socialist guise is a long way from what I remember the Labour party.

Harry Barnes said...

The big question is whether it is still open to change. I do not deny the size of the task.

Robert said...

From what I'm seeing of the re-founding labour this has been to secret and now the NEC is coming out with things I doubt many people wanted , we are hearing the Unions will be unchanged which for me is right, Young labour wants to be financed, and that each CLP will have somebody who's job it is to get members, if thats a paid position I wonder who son or daughter they will be.

But I also know that my area asked for a return to a more socialist agenda, where has that one gone.

Harry Barnes said...

This is the submission which I was involved with -
http://dronfieldblather.blogspot.com/2011/06/our-discussion-groups-submission-to_15.html

Even if the proposed changes which are seemingly endorsed by the NEC are acceptable (which they are not), then the membership of the Labour Party should still be enabled to have a say via their meetings as to whether they should be accepted. But this is not happening. It is a democratic disgrace.