Brian Bartons Blog: First Day at Conference

I would like to thank my CLP for giving me the opportunity to attend as this year’s Milton Keynes North CLP Delegate to the Labour Party Conference held at the ACC – BT Convention Centre in Liverpool.

My report is as below and I have given a brief overview of each day’s activities.

Sunday 25th September 2011

I started off by attending the South East Delegate Lunch which was an opportunity to network and to meet new delegates across the South East Region, this was a new idea so that first time delegates felt included and not left on their own, and could take the opportunity to ask questions on voting procedures and any other conference matters.

Malcolm Powers Regional Director Chaired the working lunch with John Healy MP in attendance, I was grateful for the Regional Organiser Dan Simpson explaining to me about the voting procedures and when and where that they would be taking place; I was also given a voting cards booklet.

My first vote was on the contemporary motions of which Milton Keynes North CLP submitted one on the August Riots which were accepted by the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) on the first round and grouped with Manchester Central, Sedgefield, Stevenage, and South Dorset CLPs, I was allowed to vote for up to four (4) groups of contemporary motions, the three (3) others I voted for where: Health and Social Care, Housing, Jobs Growth and Employment Rights.

I also used my first card vote on the floor of the conference in favour of the Refounding Labour document.

I attended the opening sessions of Conference where Joe Anderson Leader of Liverpool City Council welcomed Delegates, followed by Merit Award Presentations and a one minute silence for party members who had passed away during the year; there was the outgoing General Secretary’s report from Ray Collins and from the new General Secretary Iain Nicol. I enjoyed listening to Tessa Jowell MP and Ken Livingstone Labour's Mayoral Candidate on the Mayoral campaign and the London Olympics, the OUR Ken website is using new online campaigning techniques including texting supporters who register on the website, and announcing future policies that will put Boris Johnson the present Mayor on the defensive. The rest of the session concentrated on the New Politics Fresh Ideas and Refounding Labour debates.

In the evening I attended fringe meetings on the debate on Localism hosted by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) with the former Chair Ken Cleary, and the Chief Executive John Findlay, the main speaker was Roberta Blackman - Woods MP, the second event was the South East Delegates Reception with speakers John Denham MP and Ed Milliband MP Leader of the Labour Party.

The Conference Arrangements Committee’s produced daily reports which listed the conference timetable and votes that would be taking place.

There was also a daily Conference newspaper produced by the Liverpool Echo and Trinity Mirror which covered the timetable for conference and the previous day’s proceedings.