When resolutions are only allowed on the agenda if we agree not to discuss them, and when delegates are bullied to within an inch of their sanity, it really is time to draw a line under Conference.
The task now shifts to making the new structures work for members. The National Policy Forum must be free to think without fear. Conference will be limited to options provided from the Forum, and these must reflect the breadth of Party opinion. Meeting twice a year, the Forum will depend heavily on the Policy Commissions, and must insist on access to all submissions, and publication of as much as possible. Sending evidence to Policy Commissions is pointless if it can be dismissed in a footnote or filed in the bin.
Forum representatives on the Commissions must include constituency members as well as full-time politicians and trade unionists. Similarly the National Executive Committee, with fewer full meetings and more projects delegated to “lead officers”, must not become a two-tier structure. Constituency representatives should have expenses for postage, travel, loss of earnings and childcare, so that participation does not depend on income.
Both the Forum and the NEC will need people committed to accountability and openness, and to advocating the views of ordinary members. For Labour Reform this is paramount, and compatible with political positions ranging from classic left through the mainstream of the Party.
Many more members now define themselves as on the left but they have not changed their beliefs in absolute terms. They voted, as I did, for the new Clause IV, for Tony Blair as leader and for the draft manifesto. They are not interested in seizing the commanding heights of the economy, and they will not sign up for “fightback” campaigns. They want the Government to succeed. But they are anxious about equality and social justice and when it comes to tough choices, they are clear about who should get the compassion and who should get the hard edges.
Before Brighton, delegates were radicalised by “local policy forums” where questions were not allowed, and by patronising regional briefings. Conference management techniques, particularly preventing a vote on lone-parent benefit cuts, disturbed even the starry-eyed.
Concern about centralisation surfaced in the 43% constituency vote to delay Partnership in Power, with a draft composite from the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, a proposer from Labour Reform and a seconder suggested by LLB. Many of us in Operation Shoestring would not have shared a room, let alone a platform, two years ago. The trust, among comparative strangers, was fresh air after the suspicion and secrecy of the Party machine.
The National Policy Forum will be topped up within months and by now we should know whether the process involves New Labour transparency or Old Labour fixing. Through further co-operation on shared interests, while respecting those where we have different roles, we could indeed, as new Clause IV says, “by the strength of our common endeavour, achieve more than we achieve alone.”