I note that  STLP  - save The Labour Party  - is officially supporting   the calder valley resolution  on the leadership.

I spent this morning leafletting in the Labour marginal seat of Westminster North, where Karen Buck is the MP. Thousands of leaflets were delivered in that marginal seat today, yet I can't help feeling that the work done by the grassroots on the ground has been more than offset by the politcal blow in the national media from Peter Hain's deputy leadership election arrangements.

I'm currently reading Alistair Campbell's diaries (a Christmas present) and enjoying them rather more than some of the reviewers.  But re-living the Clause IV debate (and getting an inside view of the 'other side') has raised some very important questions for me.  Does the nature of leadership in modern British politics make party democracy impossible?

I would urge any  delegates  wondering why the move by Gordon Brown to stop voting  on contemporary resolutions   at Party Conference is such a bad idea to read today's piece by Tony Benn on Guardian Comment Is Free.  Here's an extract......

After a great day out in Southall culminating in a fantastic result, I've managed to finish up my report from last weekend's National Policy Forum.

http://alon.org.uk/AlonNPFReport14-15July2007.pdf

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.

The LabOUR Commission has devised a simple checklist for each of the candidates covering the 10-point plan in its Interim Report 2007. I have contacted each candidate to ask if s/he would fill it in to inform members about prospects for party reform under their leadership. In the light of difficulties evidenced in the Newsnight hustings obtaining single word replies, I am not optimistic. But wouldn't it be refreshing, if the old cynic in me was confounded, even if the answers did not reflect two years of deliberation and evidenced based research?