National Executive Committee, 21 May 2002

 

The Prime Minister restated Labour’s priorities:  a stable economy, making work pay, reform and investment in public services, and boosting productivity, enterprise and science.  A state-funded health service was better for business than social insurance or private medicine, and education and transport would not be forgotten.  He acknowledged sensitivities on Iraq and the role of the United Nations.  

 

NEC members expressed alarm at the advance of the Right in continental Europe and the British National Party at home.  Christine Shawcroft objected to bracketing asylum-seekers with criminals, and others warned that terms like “swamping” damaged race relations.  Tony Blair responded that ignoring popular feeling posed greater risks.  There should be proper procedures for asylum-seekers, a crackdown on people-smugglers, and better use of legitimate immigration channels.  The government must also tackle the causes of crime, stress the positive contributions of immigrants, and protect genuine refugees from persecution.  Dennis Skinner argued that historic links with the unions protected Labour against extremism, and union representatives asked for legal powers to bar far-right infiltrators from membership.

 

Anti-social behaviour was repeatedly raised on the doorstep and topped the Prime Ministerial postbag, along with health and fox-hunting.  NEC members also commented on social services, housing problems in the SouthEast, the two-tier workforce, the drug menace, corporate manslaughter and the new equalities framework which would encompass gender, race, disability, age and sexuality.  They thought that workers would be keener on Europe if the government promoted directives on employment rights rather than diluting them.  I asked again when 18-year-olds could stand as councillors and MPs, and Charles Clarke was discussing this with the Electoral Commission.  But despite victories for Robo-Cops, Tories and monkeys, Tony Blair still believed that elected mayors were a good idea in the long run.

 

Prudence for a Purpose

 

Gordon Brown emphasised the importance of full employment for the centre-left.  France had 10% unemployment (20% among youth) and in Germany four million were out of work.  Following the success of the New Deal, Labour was tackling the hard-to-employ minority with criminal convictions or drug habits, and seeking to raise the proportion of lone parents in work from 50% to 70%.

 

The budget brought the first explicit tax rises for public services in twenty years.  Though well-received, he asked members to reinforce the link with health funding when National Insurance increases hit pay packets next April.  New credits for children, workers and pensioners were building an integrated tax and benefit system where everyone both contributed and received.  Other priorities were housing, with new homes falling from 60,000 in the 1980s to 21,000 now, and the growing divide in higher education, which attracted 80% of children of professional parents but only 14% of those from unskilled backgrounds.

 

Members welcomed extra money for health, but stressed that all staff must be involved in delivering change.  Pensions continued to be the major concern.  Gordon Brown called for a campaign to preserve occupational pensions, and said that Alistair Darling would consider reports in the autumn which would survey all options, including compulsory contributions from employers and employees.

 

Future Conferences

 

A conference on “Working for Rural Britain” would be held on 19/21 July in Newport, Shropshire, open to all members interested in rural issues -  details are on the party website.  The Women’s Committee reported falling attendance at women’s conferences, which in turn made it harder to support events separate from the Spring Conference.  Women’s officer Rachel Cashman would contact regional board members to help in revitalising the women’s organisation.  The European Party hoped to hold a stand-alone conference in the autumn, and congratulated Linda McAvan MEP on her award as British European Woman of the Year.  And the NEC agreed to invite the Austrian embassy to this year’s Annual Conference, a policy change which recognised the need to deal with other governments whatever their ideological persuasion.

 

Listening to Members

 

Decisions on contemporary motions at Annual Conference were delegated to the July Organisation Committee, pending further consultation with the unions.  And as expected the NEC adopted new standing orders which would refer most resolutions from members to policy commissions, though urgent matters could still be debated.  Mark Seddon’s proposal to exempt motions on contemporary issues was rejected by 15 votes to 4: Mark, Christine Shawcroft, Dennis Skinner and myself. 

 

There was, however, widespread agreement that some commissions are not doing their job, and do not read, discuss or respond to party views.  They were variously described as “the weakest link”, “black holes”, “not good enough for the party” and “damaging the credibility of everything we do”.  Serious attempts would be made to impose best practice, and the commissions would report to every NEC meeting. Perhaps this argument over resolutions has, after five years, provided the spur to action.

 

In the hope of reducing media innuendo, future gifts over £5,000 would be screened by a fundraising committee and reported to the business board and thence to the NEC.  Donors would sign a statement supporting the party’s aims and values and confirming that donations would bring neither advantage nor disadvantage in dealings with government.  Several members suggested that some donors were simply inappropriate, though Dennis Skinner argued that all profits came from exploiting workers and the use to which the money was put was more important.  However, the committee would be expected to exercise political sensitivity, and I believe that today the Desmond donation would be rejected.

 

With less publicity, the party set up a panel to review applications from organisations wishing to affiliate, and I am a member.  We have agreed to recommend acceptance of the Labour Party Disabled Members Group, and of Scientists for Labour, and this will go to the July Organisation Committee for approval.

 

Elections Past and Future

 

The recent council results were worse for the Tories and the LibDems than for Labour.  Regional press officers were praised for tailoring the national message to local circumstances, and campaigners would be asked to feed back their experiences.  Turnout had recovered slightly to 35%, but experiments in postal voting would be carefully analysed before any extension.  The European election in 2004 might provide a testbed, and the possibility of holding local elections on the same day was being examined.  

 

Future elections posed new challenges.  In 2003 Labour would need 13,000 council candidates, amounting to 5% of the membership.  In Scotland boundary revisions would cut parliamentary seats from 72 to 59, and sorting out selection procedures was under way.  For the Welsh Assembly, one constituency volunteered for an all-women shortlist, and the Welsh Executive imposed them on five others. 

 

Euro-candidates for 2004 would be chosen later this year, with members voting to rank sitting MEPs at the top of regional lists and new candidates in a second section.  At least one of the top two places in each region would go to a woman MEP, if there were any.  The previous decision to allow constituencies to nominate new candidates was reversed, and regional panels would shortlist direct from self-nominations. Constituencies will have even less of a role than last time, when resentment over centralised literature and the £2,000 levy undermined local motivation.  The change is intended to improve ethnic minority representation, but perfectly-balanced lists are pointless if no-one gets elected because activists go on strike.  Only grassroots alliance constituency representatives seemed to see this as a problem.

 

Finally London.  The decision on how the mayoral candidate would be selected was postponed to July, but opinion tended towards a 50/50 split between individual members and affiliated unions, both sections based on one-member-one-vote.  As of 21 May, Ken Livingstone had not applied to rejoin the party.  

 

Questions and comments are welcome, and I am happy for this to be circulated to members as a personal account, not an official record.  Past reports are available at http://www.labourcounts.com/AnnBlack

 

Ann Black, 88 Howard Street, Oxford OX4 3BE, 01865-722230, ann.black@unisonfree.net