WHAT HAPPENED IN WARWICK?

It takes a certain tenacity to have stuck with Labour in recent years. Foolhardiness, maybe. One of our hopes when Blair was still around was that the "Big Four" trade union leaders would somehow help the members "re-claim the Party." How vain that hope was now becomes absolutely clear.
The BBC website reports that the National Policy Forum - and the unions - approved the disgraceful, puniitve welfare reforms proposed by James Purnell. The NPF also approved ID cards, 42 days, more Academies. In other words, the whole right-wing package.
Perhaps someone can enlighten me what happened to the hundreds of amendments tabled by the CLPs on rather more progressive lines. The ones, presumably, which ended in the bin. And what, precisely, have people like Woodley and Prentis actually achieved in return for their backing of Tory policies on welfare? Not much, it would appear. The "concessions" on the minimum wage and parental leave are just sops which leave the bigger picture unremittingly New Labour.
The problem with the National Policy Forum, as we knew beforehand, is that it is a stitch-up. I was pretty sceptical that many of the left-of-centre amendments to policy positions would get through but it was worth a shot. However, that particular exercise appears to have been a complete waste of time. So what to do?
We need to campaign for an OMOV procedure to the NPF. Without that, the Policy Forum will continue to be a New Labour cabal. We need to publish the list of amendments which were proposed on Trident , trade union rights, etc and make it clear to people that many thousands in the Party support them. And we have no option but to carry on campaigning . It's clear the union bureucrats are following Brown into the abyss. We don't have to join them.

STITCHED UP LIKE KIPPERS?

So Mike Griffiths WON'T be the new General Secretary of the Labour Party. Instead, David Pitt Watson, an extremely rich City whizzkid, pal of big business and inevitably pal of Brown's . Perhaps someone will enlighten us how the Grassroots Alliance reps voted - and why. Because that might just alter the way I vote in the forthcoming elections .....
It does not augur well. Here's his opening gambit."I am looking forward to working with members, stakeholders and staff to achieve our objectives." No mention of the unions, then ? And "stakeholders" ????????? Classic New labour guff. You were warned..... Mike Griffiths is no-one's idea of the perfect candidate. But at least he had a traditional background in the labour movement. I find today's news extremely disappointing.

DEATH OF LABOUR CONFERENCE?

My mole earlier today was right, then. The union representatives on the NEC ( for it must be they) have agreed to let Gordon Brown's proposals to scrap contemporary motions through.
Breaking news just in from the BBC says this was accepted by 23 votes to four ( presumably oposed by the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance) . Apparently, the "big concession " is that the process will be reviewed after two years. And then, no doubt, rubber-stamped again after a few late-night sessions in smoke-filled rooms. Will someone please therefpre explain what was the point of Gordon Brown's "consultation" and will they be publishing the results of it? I submitted my thoughts, so did many hundreds of other ondividuals and dozens of CLPs. To what end ? We've been stitched up like kippers . Again. There only remain the formalities.Unless of course there is a last-minute rebellion.I will stil be going to my CLP on Thursday and fighting this tooth and nail.Odd, isn't it, how Gordon hates the union vote when it conspires against him. But we have a situation where four out of 6 CLP reps ( I'm assuming here) vote against these profoundly anti-democratic proposals and it counts for diddly squat......