Just a quick report about the last day of UNISON NDC conference. 

Yesterday afternoon we spent nearly 2 hours discussing (motion 63) on whether or not we should review UNISON’s link with the Labour Party. I am very glad to report that after a somewhat “heated” debate, Conference decided in a card vote by a clear majority not to review the principle of a constitutional link.

Deputy General Secretary, Keith Sonnet, gave a blinding speech, the best I have ever seen him, tearing into the Socialist Party (SPEW) who had moved the motion and exposing their true aim of wanting to divert union money into their fantasy “Workers Party”. There were so many delegates queuing up to speak against any review that they had to stand up to wait their turn.

I was really pleased with the result and very proud of UNISON delegates.

This is not to let the Labour Government off the hook.

To be fair (I am a bit jaded and partisan at the moment) there were a number of fairly mainstream delegates during the week who had been rightly very critical about Labour government policies.

At the risk of being a little bit patronising I felt that the union demonstrated once again its political maturity today by realising that even considering disaffiliation is an own goal. It would be an empty gesture. The Labour government knows that turkeys after all do not vote for Christmas. There is no alternative to the Labour Party for all its faults. Standing on the outside trying to shout in is a waste of oxygen. There is no use us pretending otherwise.

The real issue today is that at this moment, it appears that Labour is failing to deliver. What it is failing to deliver on is its raison d’être for the Labour movement, which is to defeat the Tories. My fear and that of many delegates is that of another 18 years of Tory misrule, not pointless betrayal politics.

The Black Socialist Society Special Conference 2007 will be held in Manchester College of Arts and Technology, Ashton Old Road, Manchester, M11 2WH on Saturday 24 November 2007. Conference attendees will gather to take part in Labour’s policy making process, receive training, hear from Government Ministers and much more.  For more info - http://www.tmponline.org/?p=259

So Gordon's made his first speech as Prime Minister and Labour Leader to Conference.

What did you make of it?

[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.

PPC Westmorland and Lonsdale
Unite-Amicus Section

Are there still hotels and b&bs still available?

Is staying in places like Ringwood viable?     

Committed2Equality (c2e), the leading UK employment diversity consultancy, Unite, the largest union in the UK, and TMP, the online political magazine, will be hosting a fringe event at the Labour Party Conference on Monday 24 September from 5.30-7pm in the Franklyn Suite, Connaught Hotel, in Bournemouth.

The event – “Bridging the gap: narrowing the employment divide” – will explore the practical and pragmatic steps the Labour Government needs to take to ensure fair employment and improve the employment and work opportunities for disadvantaged groups.

This year’s annual NationalDelegate Conference (NDC) is in Brighton. It starts 10am on Tuesday, 19 June, and lasts until Friday afternoon. It is the union's ruling body and decides upon campaign priorities and policies.

To anyone who hasn’t been before I would recommend clicking onto the UNISON website and watch the short video of last year’s NDC at Bournemouth. The NDC is huge, you don’t realise how big an organisation UNISON is until you go to conference and see how widespread geographically the membership is. You’ll hear accents from all over the British Isles (and much further afield).

According to reports on Conservative Home, Birmingham's (Tory-administered) Council has bunged the Tory Pary £2million to host their 2007 Conference in the City.

I had to laugh at this article by Iain Dale over on CiF.

It was supposed to be the smoothest of the three conferences.  After the nervous Lib Dem opener, to last week's "Big Goodbye," the Tory conference was supposed to be about the unity and ideas of the next British Government.  Day One didn't turn out so well.

I've written a peice on my new blog arguing that we should invite the Democratic senator Barack Obama to address next year's Labour Party conference. How would one go about suggesting this to the people who are responsible for organising the event?

No movement over the Trident debate allowed at conference.

Which side are you on? At Labour conference 2006, are you for Sky's sponsored white lanyards, or the GMB's red one?