Quite a combination...

The government will close a tax loophole that allows fat-cat bosses to pay less tax than their office cleaners, Gordon Brown said today.

Foreign office U-Turn?

Judith Symes, who is on David Cameron's A-list of approved candidates, says she has lost faith in the Conservative party and is now a Labour supporter.

She told the Brighton Argus:

"The Conservatives badly needed reform and David Cameron presented himself as the reformer but he is not succeeding. He has not gathered together a cross-section of society. Instead, elitism and exclusivity are at the heart of the party."

Who will be next?

No more voting at conference

Labourhome.org's poll taken on the first day and a half of the party conference has produced the following results:

62% of the grassroots said Gordon Brown should call an election immediately, and 38% said he shouldn't.

When asked when they expected Gordon Brown to call the election (two choices were given - "now" and "co-incide with the Mayoral election in 2008" - 34% of the grassroots expect the Prime Minister to call the election now, and 66% expect him to call it in 2008.

56% of the grassroots believe we are ready for an election, whilst 44% said we weren't.

66% of the grassroots said they felt more able to campaign for the party since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, and 34% said they weren't.

The poll had a sample size of 200 respondents and was conducted within a 16 hour timespan between Sunday and Monday. All respondents were Labour party supporters. Elected officials and people were for elected representatives were not included in the poll sampling.

I am only in Bournemouth until tomorrow evening - I do find having a full-time job plays havoc with my political life. On the train down I was reflecting with some fellow 'comrades' that I have never spoken from the platform at conference – perhaps I never will. But if I did get the chance...

[Extract: read the full entry at www.michaelmeacher.info.]
The most important issue at Conference is the future of Party democracy. The hopes raised by some of the welcome proposals in Gordon Brown’s consultation document ‘Extending and Renewing Party Democracy’ will be dashed and the whole process thrown into reverse if the leadership gets its way on one other proposal which outweighs all the rest, namely that in future delegates will no longer be allowed to vote on and pass resolutions on any policy questions.

Team Labourhome will be out in full force at this conference - if you see any of these slick lads stumbling around the BIC please do yell out and say "hi" - we'd love to hear your thoughts on the Labour blogosphere and online campaigning in general.

Highly-rated Local Government Minister John Healey is set to publish at Labour Conference a pamphlet with the LGA Labour Group calling for town halls of "all the talents".
In what seems a natural extension of Gordon Brown's Cabinet strategy, Healey seems to be calling for Local Authorities to be less partisan in their power sharing - "Confident politicians can reach beyond the narrow circles of their own power".
While this may mean co-opting opposition politicians into positions of power, the main thrust seems to be to press devolution down to a local level.
I for one am looking forward to reading the detail.

GORDON BROWN’S speech to the TUC in Brighton was an opportunity lost. The language was different from the past regime, the attitude warmer and enough buttons were pressed  to avoid an even more muted reception than he got in his first appearance at Congress as Prime Minister.

Dear Comrades

Can I encourage all members of the party from all wings to attend the Unite march on 23 September.  We need to send a clear message that we demand better conditions for our public sector workers, a return to the index link for pensioners, an even better programme of social housing etc  I am travelling by coach from Liverpool.  Other coaches are available from the North West and around the country.  If you believe you are part of the Labour Movement then there is no excuse in not being there.

Wiseman
Branch & Shop Steward Amicus Unite

This weekend, the NPF is to discuss Gordon Brown's proposals for reforming the party.

The proposals include ending contemporary resolution debates at annual conference and an OMOV vote of party members on the final policy documents which feed into the next General Election manifesto.

Gordon Brown plans to destroy the last pitiful shreds of meaningful debate at Labour Party Conference. Under proposals now out for consultation ( which completely by-passed the NEC by the way) members are being asked to consider plans to end our ability to move contemporary and emergency resolutions at annual Conference