Your NPF SE CLP representativesHere are the consultation policy documents issued by the party. For each document there is also a discussion guide. Click on the link to open the PDF file.
Towards a new economy discussion guide
Restoring Responsibility, Strengthening Our Communities
Restoring responsibility discussion guide
Fulfilling the promise of Britain
Fulfilling promise of Britain discussion guide
Britain’s role in world discussion guide
This month Labour announced new policies that will aim to bring more fairness into our society.
A future Labour government will implement in full the recommendations of the High Pay Commission, including:
And Ed Miliband said that the next Labour government will work with the EU to get the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man to reveal the money hidden by UK citizens in offshore accounts. It is estimated that we could raise £2.4bn in tax by revealing details of tax-dodging by individuals through the Channel Islands.
Between January and December 2011, the rising cost of living under the Coalition has meant the average family is paying nearly £5 A DAY more. Moneysupermarket.com did the research for the Tory paper the Daily Telegraph, and reported middle-income households will pay:
Tory and Lib Dem MPs vote for Coalition cuts – but when it comes to their own constituencies, then they change their tune. All of these MPs are opposing cuts that are happening because of their own government policies.
All of these MPs are ministers in the government that is making the cuts. They all voted for cuts, but then try to have it both ways by claiming to stand up against cuts.
The Daily Telegraph has reported that the government will close up to 2,000 rural post offices – and the post offices will be replaced by limited services offered in petrol stations and shops. The offices will no longer offer car tax, driving licences, large overseas parcel services and cash withdrawls. These “Post Office Locals” have been trailed but Consumer Focus, the watchdog, have said they have grave reservations. The trials showed that the postal services were very much second best behind the normal services of the shops – some ran out of money and couldn’t pay pensions and benefits.
The Tories and Lib Dems have both claimed to be the party of the countryside, but these closures show that both parties are now abandoning rural communities.
We’re sure that Labour activists will welcome this statement on policy – something members have suggested for many years.
Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, responding to the Competition Commission’s report into the local bus industry, said:
“A combination of the Government’s cuts to funding for local bus services and the deregulated nature of bus services outside London has already seen a fifth of all supported bus services in England face the axe this year.
“The reality is that bus deregulation outside London is a dogmatic experiment that has failed. While Transport for London has been able to introduce the Oyster card, set bus routes, decide fare levels and integrate bus and train services, the rest of England has been left behind. That’s why our policy review has been looking at how we can devolve more transport responsibilities with decisions made locally by integrated transport authorities, as London has now, with powers to deliver local bus services in the way that best suits each community.
“It’s time that passengers across England were able to benefit from a properly managed, integrated transport network with smart ticketing and regulated fares on local bus and rail services.”
George Osborne made a series of announcements in the Autumn Statement. He also revealed that his Plan A to cut the deficit in 4 years is way off course, the economy is slowing down and will probably go back into recession soon.
The key points:
The Institute of Fiscal Studies says that the average family on a middle income will be £2,500 worse off a year now than they were in 2008 under Labour. Everyone is feeling the squeeze, and of course families on benefits are suffering more than most. But will the Tories help? It doesn’t look very likely – Iain Duncan-Smith says that giving more money to poor families won’t help child poverty because some parents will just spend the money on themselves.
Coalition cuts are also hitting women harder than men. The Government’s own figures show that 12 million women will be affected by changes to tax credits and public sector pensions, compared to just 5.7m men.
And calculations by Consumer Focus show that almost a quarter of households in England and Wales are now suffering from fuel poverty.
Refounding Labour – Conference 2011 and
beyond
A report back
When he became leader of the party, Ed Miliband announced the Refounding Labour consultation to review the way the party works. The consultation received over 3,000 individual responses and over 150 from local parties. We took part in debates in local parties and regional events and many of you also contacted us with your views. A draft report was produced in August and a final report was debated at Conference. We wanted to report back on that debate and the outcome, as there are some important changes in the ways local parties work – and there are also some outstanding issues that haven’t been resolved yet, such as possible changes in the role of Conference and voting at Conference.
As we are sure you will have read in the media, the final document debated at Conference was only issued a couple of days before the debate. Together with NPF colleagues across the country, we made it very clear that this was totally unacceptable – but the whole process since the closing of the consultation has been slow because of negotiations between the leadership, PLP, NEC and unions. Despite those discussions, the most controversial issues were not agreed at all and so the report does say “further discussion will be needed” on several matters, included the policy-making process. We also passed on the views yet again that we heard from almost all CLPs ad members we talked to – that the continued debate over party structures means we are not starting the vital work in developing the policies we will take into the next election. We need to resolve the remaining structural issues quickly so that we can produce winning policies for our campaigns.
REFOUNDING LABOUR DECISIONS ON PARTY STRUCTURE
The party should be community-based and campaigning
Party to become a mass movement
A party we can be proud of
Other items
Please let us know your views on these changes.
POLICY MAKING
The review of policy making did produce some recommendations, and we are pleased that there appears to be progress on concerns that you (and we) have raised again and again.
Most members support the retention of the NPF model, which allows debate of an enormous range of subjects in depth. However, this review must also be the last chance to get the NPF process right. The leadership have acknowledged that members feel disengaged from and suspicious of the NPF. What happens to submissions is opaque; there are no reports back to the party between annual conferences; shadow cabinet teams discuss policy ideas in isolation; and, as the leadership now recognise, party members have sometimes been right on issues such as council housing and PFI when those in Westminster have been wrong.
The report on policy making at Conference was an interim report – there will be further consultation until the end of January, although as NPF reps we believe that final decisions could have been made by now. Peter Hain recently sent an email to party members about this consultation. We would like as many members and local parties to contribute as possible, as it will help us make the case for your views to be heard. The link to the party website page for the consultation is here:
Some changes that we have put forward after consultation with local parties have been agreed:
More involvement for party members:
Make it transparent:
Reach out to the public:
Topical issues – relevant policy commissions will deal with these
NPF meetings:
Policy commissions:
Conference:
As reps our greatest frustration is that our biggest complaint has still not been resolved. We are elected by party members to be representatives and yet we still have no official access to mailing lists of those we are supposed to represent. You are reading this report because we have your email address, but many SE members never see our reports. This must change.
We also agree with the vast majority of members we speak to – it is time that we should be debating policy, not how we have our discussions. It is 18 months since the general election and although the next general election could be 3 ½ years away, elections are not won in 6 weeks. We have elections for councils and in London next year, county elections in 2013 and euro elections in 2014. The public want to know what we stand for and what we would do if elected. So as NPF reps, we are constantly pushing the shadow cabinet to start looking at the biggest issues in detail. Already we have sent our own consultations to SE parties and members about some issues, and we will do more of these – we hope that you will be able to use our surveys to hold your own debates in your local parties. As we know from council housing, PFI and other issues, party members often recognise problems before those in Westminster, and we can use the NPF process to highlight problems where we need policies.
So we urge you to hold policy discussions locally, and please ask us along to take part, so we know our views.