National Policy Forum - Your Southeast CLP representatives

October 2007 newsletter

This is the latest edition of our regular newsletter. It includes reports from policy debates at Annual Conference in Bournemouth in September.

A Conference Full of Changes
By Simon Burgess

Although the press coverage of our Annual Conference was driven by rumours of an election, there were a lot of important changes made to the party’s policy-making processes, as well as a number of major policy announcements. And after Beth Breeze stood down, we have a new member of the Southeast NPF team. This newsletter will give you news on all of these subjects.

NPF HELPING CHILDREN

A few days ago, a report was published that revealed how children born in August do significantly worse in exams than their older classmates. This is a great example of the way the NPF can bring real changes. I first raised this issue with some colleagues at an NPF meeting with ministers. They promised that they would investigate the issue.

Now, after this important report, ministers have promised that they will look at making changes to the schools system and exams to help end this problem. This is a great example of the way in which NPF discussions can lead to concrete results and changes in government policies.

WELCOME KAREN LANDLES, your new representative

Karen Landles was elected to the policy forum at Annual Conference as a new member of our team. We’d like to welcome Karen. Karen is from Epsom and Ewell CLP, was a member of the European elections list in 2004 and was Guildford’s parliamentary candidate in 2005. Here’s a message from Karen:

“Thank you for electing me as one of your South-East CLP Representatives to the National Policy Forum. Since I am the only one new to the NPF I would like to talk a little about how I can work with you.

When I asked for your nomination I wrote about two areas important to me: firstly listening to the members of the Party, ensuring our voices are heard, and secondly putting political discussion at the heart of campaigning - where it belongs.

Moving forward I would love to visit your CLP to hear your thoughts on how the policy process is working for you and how we can improve it as well as how we can engage more members in the discussions. In addition I would like to work with you, especially in our marginal constituencies, in looking at ways of involving the wider electorate in our policy formations.

So please give me a call or email me and I look forward to seeing you over the course of the year. “

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PARTY DEMOCRACY

CHANGES MADE TO PARTY POLICY-MAKING AT CONFERENCE 2007

Conference 2007 voted overwhelmingly to overhaul the party’s policy-making process. The changes were approved my massive majorities by all parts of the Labour movement - constituencies, unions and affiliated groups.

For more details, please click on these links:

General introduction
The main policy changes
The new contemporary issues process