London Labour Conference - Day 2 West Ham CLP & UNISON

Day 2 of conference started for me with a UNISON delegation meeting at 9.30 which was confusing since we did not know the order of business for the day.  So we agreed to meet up again at lunchtime by which we expected that any controversial matter to be explained so we could make a collective decision.

Then we found out that that the proposed rule changes were to be heard first thing that morning. So it was all rather confusing and messy.

Both UNISON and West Ham CLP had a good day I think with a number of us making speeches in conference debates and contributions during fringes.

I moved the Housing motion on the private rental sector on behalf of UNISON and Joshu moved the motion on Youth Safety on behalf of West Ham CLP. Both were passed unanimously.

During the merit awards retired former UNISON Regional Secretary Linda Perks (and Labour Councillor candidate 2018) was given a lifelong service award.

Dawn Butler MP closed conference with a lovely personal but powerful political speech about overcoming and rising above racism and sexism.

While the conference was a little grumpy and even bad tempered at times I thought it was on the whole a success and that we were united about the importance of winning both the next General Election and local elections in London 2018.

I was really pleased to end the day with singing (however badly) "The Red Flag" and posing with UNISON comrades for the traditional delegation conference picture.  

The Red Vicar of Thaxted

Another lovely Sunday walk and another history lesson. The walk was a circular 6.5 mile route starting from historic Thaxted in Essex. Very muddy but lots of sunshine.

In Thaxted there is a magnificent Church dating back to the 14th Century. For over 30 years (1910-1942) its Church of England priest was
Conrad Noel the "Red Vicar of Thaxted. He had been appointed to the parish  by Lady Warwick a left wing landowner who apparently was the former mistress of King Edward VII.


 In 1911 he became a founding member of the British Socialist Party and in 1920 hung the Red flag and the flag of Sinn Fein alongside the flag of St George inside the Church. This led to the infamous "Battle of the Flags". Which resulted in disturbances and even fist fights.

According to this account Posters in the town declared "No Bolshevism for Thaxted" while the Church defence was headed by a small party of former policemen who had been dismissed for striking in 1919 (described as ‘Lansbury’s Lambs’)!

Noel also once wrote "Some Cork Black and Tans say they are on their way to England to murder me at night. About murdering, I will put it in the hands of the police, but of course they could not protect so open a place as the vicarage. It may be bluff, but...".

Ironically Noel was a friend of the "patriotic" English Composer Gustav Holst who also lived in the Village (I vow to thee my country)

Eventually he was forced by a Church Court to remove the flags.

Today inside the Church there is a bronze head of Noel and a simple plaque alongside that states "He loved justice and hated oppression".

Other pictures of the walk are here on Facebook. 

#Lab13 While Labour was resuming its historic mission to save Capitalism - from itself

I have now had over a week to reflect (and recover) on the highs and lows from the Labour Conference 2013 (and also to enjoy the faux outrage of the Tories and some big businesses).

The high of the conference was I think the re-balance of British Labour politics however so slightly to "the left".

What Ed Miliband is proposing is a small but still significant shift away from a view that capitalism always "knows best" towards a more hard headed, pragmatic and interventionist stance.

But nothing has really happened to scare the horses. Do not forget that most Tories believe in an active role for the state. With only their most reactionary swivel eyed loons calling for the privatisation of the Royal family or the Brigade of Guards (mind you there were few of these in Manchester last week).

It is a question of balance. The evidence of the financial crisis of 2007 is surely that left to itself, capitalism will destroy itself (and us with it). 

There was also some excellent fringes and debates on the conference floor. It was great to meet up with people from all over the UK and talk "politics".

While on the downside I experienced yet another MP having a strop because I didn't know he was a MP and had innocently asked what he was doing at conference? At a late night reception a certain journalist refused to speak to me because he claimed that I had misquoted him in a post. He then did a very poor Jimmy Cagney impersonation before flouting off.

I also witnessed some incredible rudeness by extremely self important individuals whose size of their ego's made me wonder how on earth they managed to walk through doorways?

Yet such incidents were very much in the minority and the vast majority of Party members, delegates and visitors behaved impeccably and were a joy to be with. My MP Lyn Brown was asked by a delegate at the London reception where she was from and she replied "Oh, I'm from West Ham CLP".

I think this conference is a game changer that has enhanced the standing of Ed Miliband.  Probably the greatest inverted compliment is that the only reason the Daily Mail launched its recent disgusting attack on his dead father is because they see Ed as a future Labour Prime Minister.

Roll on 2015.

(picture of the traditional singing of "The Red Flag" at  close of conference)