Motions ruled out of order by CAC

LeftrightLeftright Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 05:31:44 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) has ruled out of order 17 motions from CLPs on the leadership election. If this decision stands, Labour Conference will be the only place in the UK where the issue of the leadership is NOT being discussed, and it risks making us look like ostriches with our heads in the sand, whatever your opinion on the actual question (unless you think like an ostrich, of course).




Please try and get the following Emergency Motion through your CLP.
The closing date is noon on Friday, 22nd September. Send hard copy to:

Greg Burton, Conference Arrangements Committee, Labour Party, 39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HA (until 5pm tonight, Thursday).

If possible, you should fax it as well to 020 7783 1506 and email to:
cac@new.labour.org.uk

Emergency Motion to Annual Conference (via CLPD)

Conference notes that Contemporary Motions have been submitted by some 17 CLPs, asking that this Conference be given an opportunity to discuss the Party leadership issue. Conference further notes that the Conference Arrangements Committee has ruled that these motions were out of order.

Conference believes that this vital issue should be considered by this Conference, the Party's sovereign body, and therefore asks the CAC and National Executive Committee to timetable appropriate motions that will allow this to take place."

I have also heard that the CAC has ruled out of order about 140 contemporary motions (including all those on the leadership, Trident, housing and Iraq). Only about 70 motions are ruled in. The CAC meets again on Friday and may rule a few more in order but it doesn't look good.


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Motions ruled out of order by CAC | 25 comments (25 topical)

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#1)

by liz on Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 10:15:31 PM GMT

Quite right too.  The TV cameras and journalists would have a field day, voters (they voted for Tony Blair - leaders matter) would be totally put off and the conservative party would gain.  Really good for the party!!!


Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#4)

by smiley on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 02:08:04 AM GMT

Did they vote for Blair, Liz?  And there was me thinking they'd voted for the Labour Party....


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#5)

by Glass House on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 02:49:35 PM GMT

If you're going to patronise liz (even though you know full well what her point was), it might be worth mentioning that voters didn't vote for the Labour Party, they voted for an individual candidate.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#11)

by smiley on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 08:39:12 PM GMT

Of course I wasn't being patronising - sarcastic maybe, but not patronising.  I wasn't trying to make a boring constitutional point (although you should feel free to do so) - I was trying to say that the idea we only the last general election because Blair was leader is wrong.  


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#13)

by Glass House on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 08:45:44 PM GMT

Sorry if I got that wrong. So difficult to judge tone online.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#2)

by Juvenal on Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 10:49:48 PM GMT

If we start ruling out debates because they might not look good on the telly, where does it end?

Are we an open and democratic party or not?


Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#3)

by JonRogers on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 01:14:04 AM GMT

Not I think if this ruling stands.

Conference should be the Parliament of our movement not primarily a showcase for the great and the good. If we want a rally which looks good on TV populated entirely by people who want to applaud then we could do that in an afternoon somewhere - and leave Conference for the serious debate about the direction of the Party which ought to be going on.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#6)

by steverace on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 03:33:28 PM GMT

Actually, I've found that the only people who are discussing the leadership are the party, the hard left who want rid of Blair at any cost, and the media.

The vast majority of the population appear to be looking on in bemusement, and wondering what all the petty in-fighting is about...


Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#7)

by LeftrightLeftright on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 04:03:33 PM GMT

Steve, you wrote:

"the only people discussing the leadership are the party"

My point precisely - but not, apparently, at conference, assuming the situation remains the same.  

Which will mean more months of contender manouevring and media "reporting" but little clarity. Whatever wing of the party people are on, they all want an end ot this. Discussing it at conference would clear the political air and have the virtue of achieving an end on which most of the party is agreed!


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#8)

by steverace on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 04:49:20 PM GMT

LeftrighLeftright, you wrote:

'If this decision stands, Labour Conference will be the only place in the UK where the issue of the leadership is NOT being discussed'

If you think that having a motion debated vociferously by either side of the party membership will have any bearing on political manoeuvrings of either side of the issue, I think you'll be sorely mistaken.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#9)

by Juvenal on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 05:17:25 PM GMT

I don't think any of us believe that a debate will have any bearing on the "political manoeuvrings", just as most of our conference debates have no bearing on government policy.  

We just want the chance to discuss openly the hottest topic in the party at present.  


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#12)

by steverace on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 08:42:29 PM GMT

But why do you want to debate it?

Blair's going in May at the latest, we'll have a leadership election, and we're done.

I really don't see what a debate will serve to do, other than to completely tear ourselves apart in the eyes of the public. Have we nothing better to debate?


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#14)

by Glass House on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 08:47:32 PM GMT

Some people just can't abide the fact that Blair will go quietly without giving them the chance to scream and shout like children.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#15)

by Juvenal on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 10:02:18 PM GMT

To equate conference delegates with screaming and shouting children is patronising, to say the least.  

We appear to have lost confidence in the ability of the party to debate issues in the open without tearing ourselves to shreds.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#18)

by Glass House on Mon Sep 25, 2006 at 07:23:37 PM GMT

I think you'll find that I wasn't characterising conference delegates with screaming and shouting children.

I was saying that people who want a debate at conference about the leadership (when the issue, for all intents and purposes, is now settled) do so simply out of a desire to scream and shout like children, regardless of the damage to the party.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#16)

by Benjamin on Sat Sep 23, 2006 at 07:52:18 AM GMT

Interesting that weive got two Labour Party people here, supporting a supposedly DEMOCRATIC socialist party, who characterise any open debate at conference on these issues as "tearing ourselves apart" or "screaming and shouting like children". I suppose I should be shocked by such undemocratic attitudes, but I'm afraid little does shock me about some in the Labour Party anymore. Its really sad. What sort of society is to be built by people with attitudes like that?

Yes, there were problems with division before, but now we have swung so far the other way that undemocratic attitudes and control freakery are actually glorified.

Call it anything you like guys, just don't call it democracy, please.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#19)

by Glass House on Mon Sep 25, 2006 at 07:26:08 PM GMT

What good would a slanging match at conference do?

Who would benefit?

I'll call it democracy for as long as we get to vote on the leadership.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#10)

by turnleft on Fri Sep 22, 2006 at 07:38:59 PM GMT

Anybody who looks at my posts will see I am not a hardened left winger - what I am is utterly pragmatic about winning the next election.

As things stand, 70% of the country think we need a change of leadership. Gordon is the chief finance and operations officer of New Labour PLC. How anybody can think that the public don't mean him when they say they want a new Government shows they have lost the plot.

Gordon MUST stand aside for some new blood if we are to have ANY chance of winning the next election.

By that I don't mean if Gordon stands aside we stand some chance - we stand very little chance with fresh leadership - but we do stand a TINY chance. I'm not bothered if they are left or left of center or even center  - as long they are NOT part of the current leadership.


Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#17)

by Curlew on Sun Sep 24, 2006 at 04:43:05 PM GMT

There is something really amiss with the Labour party.  I heared President Tony this morning saying that this coming week is about the PUBLIC and not about the PARTY. How disrepectful to his membership, can a leader be?  

When I vote at a general election I do not see a leader's name on the ballot paper but local MPs and the parties they represent.  It is the party that elects the leader not the public. TB also said "as we are a democracy have to have party politics" - can I take it that he would prefer some other method of electing a government?  Perhaps a drift into republicanism is happening while we are asleep.

 


Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#20)

by Glass House on Mon Sep 25, 2006 at 07:27:55 PM GMT

"as we are a democracy have to have party politics"

what?

"can I take it that he would prefer some other method of electing a government?"

what?


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#21)

by MatthewStiles on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 04:32:10 PM GMT

From The Herald
"Echoing the sentiment of John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary who insisted Labour did "not do coronations", Mr Reid stressed that the process of selecting a new leader should involve an "open and transparent" debate, not a deal stitched up in a smoke-filled room."
Isn't there a contradiction between Reid's commitment to an "open and transparent" debate and the gagging of conference?  Of course there is. Politics it seems is only for the big boys, the rank and file should just play the role of cheerleaders.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#25)

by steverace on Mon Oct 02, 2006 at 10:44:12 AM GMT

Err, you may be forgetting that a leadeship contest (in which every member will get at least one vote) will be held when Blair steps down...


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#22)

by Curlew on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 05:30:18 PM GMT

"as we are a democracy {we} have to have party politics"

Sorry, typo.  From the interview with Andrew Marr.

My point is that he sounded as if he was reluctant to deal with his own party and the issues therein, and would prefer to go it alone.


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#23)

by Glass House on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 07:47:20 PM GMT

I think he was just trying to say (as he did in his speech) that the party has to look outward rather than inwards. We're in politics to serve the people - not to navelgaize


[ Parent ]

Re: Motions ruled out of order by CAC (#24)

by Anonymous on Sat Sep 30, 2006 at 02:24:55 AM GMT

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Motions ruled out of order by CAC | 25 comments (25 topical)