Focus on elections

The NEC took place on 19 and 20 November. Greg Cook made a presentation about next May’s elections; London Mayor and Assembly, English local council seats and the local authorities in Wales. There were predictions of possible gains and losses. There were concerns raised that unlike 2004, when these elections were last held, in 2008 there would be no European Parliament elections, so UKIP’s vote may fall, benefiting the BNP — an important issue in relation to the London Assembly. It was pointed out that the East Europeans, if registered, can vote in local elections. Dennis Skinner said Polish workers should also be recruited into trade unions.

Harriet Harman indicated that the selection of women candidates might actually be going backwards and that the selection of black and ethnic minority candidates was moving at an extremely slow pace. Operation Black Vote have been asked to look at what can be done in terms of specifying a fixed proportion or all ethnic minority shortlists, which might require setting aside the Race Relations Amendment Act.

A report was made on the Partnership in Power policy making process. To prepare the next general election manifesto, policy documents are currently being consulted on till February 2008. From February to April the policy commissions will re-draft the documents in advance of the ‘Warwick stage’. These will be sent to CLPs and affiliates on 2 May, who will have until 20 June to send amendments to their National Policy Forum (NPF) representatives, who themselves have until 4 July, to submit amendments to party head office. The ‘Warwick’ NPF meeting on 24-27 July will discuss these amendments and finalise the documents. Ann Black raised that delivering on the issue of party renewal was important, after the promises made at conference. She thought there should be longer for CLPs to submit amendments and expressed concern about the black hole into which submissions disappear.

The NPF will consider the five contemporary issues referred to it by this year’s conference and agree five ‘annexed reports’ to be included with the annual NPF report to the 2008 conference. Mike Griffiths, NEC Chair, said there was a case for having minority positions within these ‘annexes’, as minority positions are permitted at Warwick and then conference could vote between alternative positions. It would be an improvement on just having a ‘take it or leave it’ vote and allows conference to assert some sovereignty. Peter Willsman welcomed the idea which will be looked at by the Joint Policy Committee. He also expressed concern that next May/June’s amendments from CLPs to the policy documents should not be siphoned off by unsympathetic NPF members. He also suggested that when contemporary issues are referred to the policy commissions, every party unit that has submitted that topic to conference should be able to meet the commission, not just the movers and seconders of proposals.

Peter Willsman had studied the responses received by the party to its consultation document on party renewal this summer. He had discovered that 24 out of 25 CLPs had supported the proposal to have 12 extra places on the NPF. So why had it disappeared from the final rule changes put to conference? Also amongst the rule changes that had been put to the NEC after the consultation were proposals not mentioned in either the consultation or the responses, that appeared to have come out of nowhere.

Harriet Yeo asked what had happened to the other conference decisions where the leadership had been defeated, notably rail re-nationalisation, where an undertaking was given that it would be looked into in the same way that the fourth option on council housing is being, but this is not happening.

Procedures for the European Parliamentary candidate selections were reported on. CLPs will have to organise a full trigger ballot process including their branches, along the same lines that sitting MPs face trigger ballots. This will need to be concluded by the end of January 2008, a timetable that Ann Black pointed out would be extremely tight given it had not yet been publicised to CLPs. Regional directors are being told that if there are special circumstances, a GC can make the decision without branches having trigger meetings. Ann Black suggested that in view of the timescale and the distance between MEPs and branches, a decision by GCs ought to be the norm.

The campaign finances of the candidates in the Deputy leadership contest were reported on. Peter Wills-man pointed out the correlation between spending and votes was not particularly high. He compared it to the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance success in 1998 when it spent very little but won four out of the six CLP places on the NEC as opposed to the expenditure of the right wing’s slate which took out full page newspaper adverts.

Under the leader’s report Walter Wolfgang moved a motion, seconded by Christine Shawcroft, opposing any increase in the 28-day detention period without charge. He also pointed out that, in relation to the US campaign against Iran, there was a need for a nuclear free zone in the Middle East, and that the US should not encourage Israel’s nuclear weapons. He asked Gordon Brown to agree not to condone or participate in military action against Iran.

Christine Shawcroft welcomed the good things in the Queen’s Speech on housing and private involvement in the health service, but thought these messages were not being conveyed adequately to members. Dennis Skinner suggested that government should consider taking over Northern Rock, even on a temporary basis. Dianne Hayter moved that the motion on pre-charge detention should not be voted on but remitted to the policy commission. Her procedural proposal was carried with 6 votes against.