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Notes by Ann Black:
National Policy
Forum, Exeter, 6/9 July 2000
This meeting finalised the six policy documents on
Britain in the
World; Democracy and Citizenship; the Economy;
Education
and Employment; Environment, Transport and the
Regions; and
Industry, Culture and Agriculture. After
agreement at
Conference, these will form the basis of Labour's
general
election manifesto, together with Crime and Justice,
Health and
Welfare, discussed last year.
Forum members submitted 658 amendments. Of
these, 213
were accepted initially; 30 were ruled out of order;
148 were
withdrawn in favour of others on the same subject;
229 were
accepted after negotiation at the Forum; and 38 were
not
accepted. Amendments needed 35 votes to go
forward as
minority positions for Conference to decide, and
seven of the 38
achieved this. Two were carried outright and 29
were lost.
A collective report from SouthEast representatives at
the Forum
is being prepared for constituencies, and will give
an overview of
the six areas. However it's impossible to cover
everything, so if
your particular concerns are not covered, please get
in touch
and I will track down chapter and verse
Conference Choices
The two amendments which were carried call for
18-year-olds
to be able to stand as councillors or MPs, and for a
review of
standing charges in paying for utilities. The
seven decisions for
Conference are:
- whether the reformed House of Lords should have a majority
of
elected members;
- whether Labour should consider initiating consultation on
lowering
the voting age to 16;
- whether Sure Start should definitely be extended in the
next
parliament, or whether its extension should be
urgently considered;
- whether the Tory legacy of crumbling schools should
be tackled
through the New Deal for schools, or whether a
variety of
approaches including the New Deal should be
considered;
- whether education funding should be based on a
block grant with
specific grants to encourage innovation and pilot new
ideas, or
whether we should wait for a green paper which will
consider this
and other options;
- whether directors of polluting companies should
personally face
penalties, in addition to higher fines for their
companies;
- whether TPWS [Train Protection Warning System]
should be
introduced as a preliminary to ATP [Automatic Train
Protection] as
soon as possible on all lines or on all high-speed
lines.
Amendments failing to reach the 35-vote
threshold - most of
which I supported - included
- rejecting performance-related pay for teachers;
- abolishing the charitable status of private
schools;
- legislating against discrimination on grounds of
sexuality;
- taking back public control of the rail network;
- accepting whatever funding model is recommended for the
Tube by
the Mayor's panel;
- reducing the 55% taper on the Working Families Tax Credit
or
increasing the top tax rate of 40% so the lower-paid
are liable for
less tax than the higher-paid;
- phasing out the upper National Insurance earnings
limit;
- opposing the Private Finance Initiative;
- renouncing Trident;
- ending the voucher system for asylum-seekers.
None of these will be debated at Conference.
However, many
positive moves were agreed On the Tube,
the government
"welcomes the Mayor's panel to assess the
funding options [and]
will work with the Mayor to put in place the funding
needed to
bring the best deal for Londoners." UNISON
won further
assurances that PFI would only be used where it
showed best
value, and new safeguards for members.
And there are commitments to "rectify any
negative
consequences of the new legislation on the proper
rights and
support given to those seeking asylum" and to
evaluate the
voucher system against "provision of an adequate
standard of
living and security of income; integration of
asylum-seekers into
the communities in which they live in Britain;
building the
confidence and maintaining the dignity of individual
asylum-
seekers; developing support systems for individuals
following
their experiences of persecution and oppression; its
contribution
to the elimination of child poverty."
All amendments on pensions and benefits were ruled
out of
order. Many unions and constituency
representatives who voted
against the pensions/earnings link last year
protested that they
would like to vote on it again, but were told that
the whole point
of the rolling programme was that we didn't revisit
past decisions
no matter how electorally damaging they turned out to
be. The
Economic Policy Commission will present a statement
on
pensions to Conference for discussion, but there will
no chance
to amend it, and it will surely contain enough
goodies - a bigger
rise in the basic pension, help for pensioners just
above income
support level, the new pensioners' credit - to be
carried
overwhelmingly.
Forging Consensus
There were many changes between amendments as
submitted
and amendments as eventually incorporated after
discussion with
ministers. Each is a story in itself, and below
are just a few
illustrations:
1. Tax, National Insurance and Benefits
The initial amendment said:
"As we continue to reform tax and benefits we
will
further raise the upper earnings limit for National
Insurance contributions so that it least keeps pace
with
inflation"
This was accepted as:
"We will continue to reform tax and benefits in
order to
achieve a fairer system that assists the
lower-paid".
2. Export Credit Guarantees/Ilisu Dam
The initial amendment said:
"We will ensure that where British businesses
require
export credit guarantees, those guarantees are
conditional on the business and the contracting
government complying with human rights and
environmental standards. In particular we will
ensure
that the Ilisu dam, proposed by the Turkish
government
and to be constructed by Balfour Beatty backed by
export credit guarantees, will not infringe the human
rights of the local Kurdish population and that it
will
comply with environmental standards."
This was accepted as:
"We will ensure that where British businesses
require
export credit guarantees, those guarantees are
conditional on the business and the contracting
government complying with human rights and
environmental standards, an example being the recent
environmental impact appraisal order by the Labour
government into the Ilisu dam project."
3. Comprehensive Education
The initial document included the statement:
"The comprehensive system, developed in the
1970s
and 1980s, has not delivered what its advocates hoped
for, never mind what we require for the 21st
century."
An accepted amendment changed this to:
"The comprehensive system, developed
in the 1970s
and 1980s, has delivered much that its advocates
hoped for, nevertheless further improvements need to
take place in order to achieve what we require for
the
21st century
4. Ballots on Grammar Schools
Initial amendments said:
(a) "[Labour] will introduce further measures to end
selection and bring the few remaining grammar schools
within the comprehensive system."
(b) "Labour reaffirms its commitment to the
comprehensive ideal, which gives equal opportunities
for all to fulfil their potential, and will tackle
both
systematic and individual failings which have held
back
too many children. The outdated selective
system
gives privileged access to the few and denies
opportunity to the many. Instead of empowering
parents to choose schools, it allows schools to
choose
pupils. Most children are classified as
failures at the
age of ten, pupils were denied places in their
neighbourhood school by outsiders, and grammar
schools cream off the top 20%. As we enter the
21st
century we cannot afford to waste so much human
capital.
In line with bringing decisions closer to the people,
the
government has introduced local ballots to determine
the future of grammar schools, where they remain.
However, practical experience has shown that the
rules as currently framed raise near-impossible
obstacles to holding a ballot at all. They can
also give
most weight to those who succeed under the status
quo, including those living outside the area, while
excluding the rejected majority within the community.
The government will therefore modify the procedures
to facilitate rather than to obstruct the expression
of
local opinion, to explain the arguments in favour of
equal opportunities, and to ensure that all
stakeholders
within the community, losers as well as winners, have
an equal voice."
These were accepted as:
"There should be no return to the 11-plus, which
divides children into successes and failures at this
early
age . . . We should address concerns about the
technical details of the ballots [on retaining
grammar
schools]".
5. Genetically-Modified Organisms
Initial amendments said:
(a) "Labour will examine the case for pursuing a
moratorium on GM crops whilst meeting our
obligations under international law."
(b) "Mindful of the public's concerns in this area, scientific
field trials of GM crops will be suspended. The
government will explore alternative methids of
investigation before proceeding further with a view
to
bringing forward new proposals during the next
term."
These were accepted as
"Whilst recognising that the only means to
obtain the
necessary evidence about the impact of GM crops on
the environment is through the field-scale trials, we
accept that there could be long-term risks as well as
many potential gains associated with GM. For
that
reason we believe we should proceed with great
caution. However, we cannot seek a moratorium
or a
ban under international law unless we can show that
GM crops represent a risk to human health or the
environment. No such evidence exists at
present.
Only the field-scale trials might produce such
evidence.
We do, nevertheless, recognise that in the
course of
carrying out the field-scale trials itself, there
could be
cross-contamination of surrounding fields. For
that
reason, we are currently reviewing the traditional
separation distances with a view to meeting public
concerns by minimising cross-pollination.
Labour will
also be looking to boost public involvement in the
consultation over GMOs, not only through the
Agriculture and Environment Research Commission
we have already set up for that purpose, but also
through new mechanisms such as Citizens'
Commissions."
6. National Minimum Wage
Consensus was hammered out in marathon negotiating
sessions
between unions and ministers, with constituency
representatives
rather left on the sidelines. The resulting
amendment stated that
the Low Pay Commission will be made permanent and
asked to re-
examine the age at which the adult rate is paid, and
to report
regularly on rates and other aspects of the minimum
wage and
poverty pay. Mark Seddon and I proposed an
amendment calling
for annual uprating linked to average earnings, real
increases where
prudent, and phasing out the youth rate for
under-22-year-olds
doing an adult job.
Members had to choose between these. Supporting
the second
would have lost the commitment to the Low Pay
Commission, and it
attracted only 19 votes. Unfortunately other
amendments which
asked the Commission to suggest an uprating
mechanism, and
could have bridged the gap, were withdrawn.
7. Electoral Reform
A deal on the future voting system for the Commons
was
also settled before the Forum proper. The
Labour
Campaign for Electoral Reform agreed the following
words
with anti-PR unions:
"Whilst remaining committed to the holding of
the
referendum before any change to the House of
Commons electoral system was introduced, Labour will
allow the changes introduced for elections to the
European and Scottish Parliaments and for the Welsh
and London Assemblies to become familiar and allow
time for all their consequences to be felt before
deciding
on any further proposals for electoral reform.
Labour
has conducted a consultation on the issues raised by
the
report and which is contained in a separate document.
There were serious concerns about the acceptability
of
AV-plus. It was strongly felt that the
electoral system
for the House of Commons needs to maintain the
constituency link, encourage stable government and
take
account of proportionality of power as well as that
of
representation."
LCER were worried about losing the referendum and any
chance of change. They needed sufficient consensus to
fend
off a hardline first-past-the-post position, which
gained only
19 votes. Mary Southcott has written a
blow-by-blow
account which I can forward to anyone who is
interested.
Two final points. First, consider what would
have happened
under the old procedures. On Education, the
paper would have
been presented by the NEC and carried, with its
negative view
of the comprehensive system. Composites
demanding abolition
of grammar schools, free student grants and tuition,
and a dozen
other clauses would have been discussed but almost
certainly
lost, and if carried, they would have been ignored as
inconsistent
with the main paper. So the outcome of the new
process may
be an improvement.
And second, I would like the whole system opened up
to
members, with feedback from regional forums, reports
from
policy commissions, free discussion on the Internet,
more direct
input to National Policy Forum negotiations, and, as
a last
resort, the chance to make changes at Conference
beyond the
Forum's limits. But what matters to most people
is the results.
If the policies are right, members will worry less
about how they
emerged. If they are wrong, I'm sure that you
will let us know.
Ann Black
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