I arrived in Manchester on Friday 28th September 2012. I booked to stay at the Britannia Country House on the outskirts of Manchester City Centre in West Didsbury. It was a lot cheaper than the accommodation in the City Centre and was a 45 minute journey on the bus each morning. Incidentally, the public transport system in Manchester is simply fantastic, and you can get a 7 day bus pass and travel as much as you like for just £12 – I didn’t need to wait any longer than 15 minutes at any of the bus stops I was at, and they ran until 3.30am.
Saturday: Our first gathering was the Delegates Welcome Reception at 7pm in Central 1. This was for all official delegates – strictly by invitation only (several MPs including Stephen Twigg who had not brought along their invite were refused entry). The gathering was sponsored by Tesco and a representative from Tesco (a Labour supporter) gave a brief speech and introduced Iain McNichol (General Secretary), Harriet Harman and Ed Milliband. After the speeches I was introduced to Harriet by Eastern Region staff and we discussed briefly the importance that Labour has representatives all over the country and that there should be “No, no go areas”. She asked me how many Labour Councillors we had on Breckland Council and wished us well for the future.
Sunday: I attended the Eastern Region delegates reception at 12pm. We received our delegate voting cards and were addressed by Gavin Shuker MP (Luton South), David Jermy from Eastern Region and Tom Watson MP visited briefly. We then had an opportunity to meet other delegates from the Eastern Region. I spoke with Cllr Dave Harris, a formidable campaigner that I’ve been following on Facebook from Colchester for some time but never met, and I also spoke with Cllr Emma Toal, a 22 year old newly elected Cabinet support member in Harlow. The food available was exactly the same menu as the night before – Mini quiche, sandwhiches and sushi – these were served at practically every function and as the week progressed less and less was being eaten. We were then taken to the main conference hall for the opening debates which included a brief discussion on what contemporary motions had gone forward to the ballot. This prompted some intense debate, which I’d imagine always occurs, and the question of what is ‘contemporary’ was raised as many delegates were unhappy that their contemporary motions were ruled out of order.
I voted for Housing as the most important issue, closely followed by Employment Rights, Economic Alternative and Heath & Social Care.
A debate was then led by Professor Michael Sandell from Harvard University who gave the Reith Lectures in 2009. The lecture focused on “What should the role of money and markets have in our society?” Members of the audience were engaged in the debate, with views sought and then challenged. Quentin Letts (journalist) wrote a very negative analysis of the session, which amongst other things said that “delegates were left scratching their heads”. That was the whole point of the exercise – to get people thinking and considering alternative viewpoints. I thought it was very brave of Ed to try such an idea, and all credit to him.
I attended the Eastern Region reception on Sunday evening. There had clearly been a lot more effort than usual put into it and the East is certainly getting more national focus than in previous years. The East apparently contains the 2nd most marginal seats out of any region in the UK. There were many Prospective Parliamentary Candidates in attendance including Clive Lewis (Norwich South), Daniel Zeichner (Cambridge), Bob Blizzard (Waveney), Lisa Forbes (Peterborough) plus a whole number of Police & Crime Commissioner Candidates including Jane Basham (Suffolk), plus Richard Howitt MEP, Gavin Shuker MP and Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) and former Great Yarmouth MP Tony Wright. Throughout the evening we were treated to a whole number of high profile visits including Ed Balls, Iain McNichol, Harriet Harman and Ed Milliband. All spoke about the importance of regaining seats in the East. Richard Howitt mentioned how 1/3 of all local Council by-election gains had occurred in the East in the past 12 months, including of course our Thetford-Abbey District gain and the Clenchwarton & Kings Lynn South County seat gain.
Monday: The focus today was on the economy with speeches with Chukka Umunna MP and the big speech from Ed Balls MP – which was very powerfully delivered and very well received. Several delegates around me were muttering “did we get the right Ed?” The commitment to delivering 100,000 new affordable homes from revenue generated from the 4G network sale was a popular proposal and well covered in the press.
The afternoon focused on an environment theme, with contributions from Maria Eagle MP, Caroline Flint MP and Mary Creagh MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Rural Affairs.
I was impressed with all of them, particularly Carline Flint MP who spoke well without notes for some time. The Party’s proposals on SwitchTogether for energy supplies is a fantastic idea and a great example of what can still be achieved even when Labour is not in power nationally – a theme that continued throughout the week and something that I found to be incredibly pro-active and motivating. I shall be signing up to the SwitchTogether scheme and I hope many other people do as well. I think this is certainly something that we can campaign on locally. There was also a discussion about Foodbanks and their growing importance nationally as families continue to struggle as a result of this Government’s policies.
On Monday evening I attended a Fringe meeting entitled; “What can Labour do to help small businesses?” – there definitely seemed to be a big focus this year from the Party on supporting businesses and working with businesses to ensure policy is correct. This is very encouraging. The fringe itself was quite dry, and not entirely what I was hoping for with a focus on small manufacturing businesses whereas my focus lately has been on developing services to help small independent retailers, but it is pleasing that the Party is giving this focus.
I attended a second fringe meeting organised by LGBT Labour regarding Labours commitment to equality, and how the party is working to promote equality. It was very well attended with speakers including Ben Summerskill (Stonewall), Stephen Twigg MP and Kate Green MP – Shadow Minister for Equality.
Tuesday: This was the big day! - The Leaders speech. I have been asked the day before if I would be prepared to sit on the stage in the audience behind Ed, which I agreed to. There were 60 of us that would be on stage, including 5 from the Eastern Region – selected by Regional Office staff. We met at 1pm in a special area and crew worked out who the tallest people were to ensure they sat at the back. We then filed onto the stage and I realised that by chance I was sat right in the very centre of the pack – I asked two people nearby if they wanted to swap but neither did! It was an incredibly nerve wracking experience, but also very enjoyable and all of us that were on the stage had good fun and kept each other’s spirits up.
The whole speech is available online; http://www.labour.org.uk/ed-miliband-speech-conf-2012
It was very well delivered, and very well received in the hall – there wasn’t an empty seat in the room. From where I was sat I could see and hear clearly the photographer scrum at the base of the stage no more than 1 or 2 metres in front of Ed. The clicking, and scuffling for the best view was constant, throughout the whole speech, not just at the start or end – this must be incredibly distracting, but Ed was not phased – clearly quite used to it. The speech was very open, and engaging. It was delivered without notes and lasted for over an hour.
There has been a focus on explaining the background to Ed – a focus on his comprehensive education, his parents and his family. There is a video about him available online, this was shown to attendees prior to his speech;
A video of the speech is also on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqYGbEY-EC8
On Tuesday evening I attended a fringe meeting on Crime, with the Labour Home Affairs team including Gloria DePeiro, Stella Creasy, Andy Slaughter, Chris Bryant and Diana Johnson.
Unfortunately I wasn’t called to ask my question, but I wanted to know if the team would be reinventing the “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” slogan that had worked so well a decade ago. The slogan was even more relevant now given cuts to so many services that would help prevent crime from occurring initially, or address the consequences once it had occurred.
Wednesday
On Wednesday morning I was stopped by a journalist on the way into the Conference hall, who asked me what I thought of Eds speech – I gave the response below which appeared on the BBC website along with a number of others:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19809346
Wednesday evening I attended the Young Labour Reception and then the Labour Students reception – I’m too old for both categories, but I snuck in anyway!
Thursday: This was the last day of conference and everybody was feeling a little sad. You just get to know a few people and find out how things work and then it’s time to go home! The morning debates focused on Local Government and Young people / Education. I had prepared a speech that I hoped to deliver but did not get called.
This was very frustrating. A number of delegates were unhappy about a lack of speakers being called full stop – with long set speeches from ministers and invited guests. Even more so the lack of speakers from the East was noticeable, plus to focus on making sure PPCs were called and Union reps. A point that I will be making to party officials when I write to them on this subject. Speakers were called in 3’s, and got to speak for no more than 3 minutes, but the set speeches and invited guests speeches took up huge chunks of time leaving very little time for floor speakers. I came to the conclusion that my main role as a delegate was to provide a receptive audience to other speakers rather than feel engaged in a ‘conference’ of views, opinions and debate.
Conference closed with a traditionally humorous speech from Harriet Harman as Deputy Leader.
CONCLUSION
I found the whole conference experience to be very motivational and encouraging. I had supported Ed Milliband over David in the Leadership election but had never heard him speak live. I was unsure about Ed in the lead up to the conference and had begun to listen to the media narrative about him perhaps lacking in gravitas to become Prime Minister one day. I was however greatly encouraged by his own performance but even more so by the changes that he is clearly making to the party. He seems determined to create a ‘movement’ and to make the party inclusive, vibrant, democratic and engaged. There was a clear emphasis on the need to be proactive as a party, through the provision of training such as Community Organising and the use by the party of American organiser extraordinaire Arnie Graf (who assisted Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008) – whilst the party may not be in power nationally, the thousands of Labour members, supporters and Councillors can still affect change in this country, even more so the many Labour Councils up and down the land. Ed Milliband is clearly prepared to listen and has a very engaging approach – for me this is much different to the Blair years where the party was very ‘top-heavy’ and to a large extent authoritarian. I got the genuine sense that Ed Milliband really does care and is passionate about the issues he talks about. I felt that there was clearly a lot of talent across Labours Ministerial team and many Ministers gave excellent speeches to the conference. I got the genuine sense that each Ministerial ‘team’ were really working together, to refine policies and positions, to engage whoever necessary and to provide a credible opposition.
My prepared speech for the Local Government, Young people and Edcuation section;
Good morning Conference, my name is Councillor Terry Jermy, Leader of the Breckland Labour Group and Delegate from South West Norfolk CLP.
That’s right conference, I’m a Councillor – and I wear a hoody. But No, Mr Cameron. I do not want a hug. But I will tell you what I do want –
I want you to end this national assault on young people.
I also want you to have a word with the Conservatives from my area, in Norfolk. My Tory County Council “deleted’ our youth service – “’deleted” – their words, not mine. They wrecked the Connexions service, cut back on sexual health support for young people and closed the pupil referral unit that was based on my ward – a service that supported some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded young people. They’ve closed services supporting volunteer youth workers whilst bleating on about the ‘big society’. This assault on young people continues nationally with the end of the EMA, rises in tuition fees and over 1 million young people out of work. What hope does this give young people? And conference, we know the danger of disappearing hope, young people can too easily go onto the wrong path. A path that all too often can lead to crime and anti-social behaviour.
Conference, this Government, and Conservative Councils up and down this country are not empowering communities, they’re not enabling them, they’re dismantling the very infrastructure that binds them together and helps to make them thrive.
Communities up and down this country, young people up and down this country need Labour members and supporters to speak up for them. They need Labour Councillors and Councils to fight for the services that are required, they need a Labour Government. A Government that understands the value of ‘community’ a Government that understands young people, and a Government that is prepared to invest in the infrastructure that is required
