The 2000 Labour Party Conference

This is the text of the talk from the Bolton West delegate to the 2000 Labour Party Conference, Jeremy Lavin, taken directly from the Deane-Cum-Heaton Labour Party's Branch minutes.

  Introduction

Jeremy started by giving an insider's overview of the conference.

There were three main issues as far as he was concerned:

      The handling of the fuel price protests

      The debate on pensions

      Nelson Mandela’s address

He said that it was quite clear that the professional politicians at the conference were speaking to two audiences – the party members inside and outside the conference hall and the general public. And they strived to be “on message”.

  Overall Theme

The overall theme was that we have done a lot of good things since coming to power. Every keynote speaker reminded us of this in relation to his or her speciality, how terrible it had been under the Tories and how terrible it would be if the Tories won the next election. The Tories plans would result in a budgetary shortfall of between £12 and £16 billion per year, equivalent to £24 million less expenditure in each Parliamentary constituency or £72 million in Bolton. We should be constantly asking the local Tories what they are going to cut to save such an amount in our town.

We’ve achieved the five pledges given on the “pledge cards” at the last election and have done very much more than that.

  Fuel Protesters

The conference took place against the backdrop of protests against fuel prices with the Countryside Alliance protesting every day outside the meeting hall. Gordon Brown, quite rightly spelt out the consequences of reducing taxation on fuel and there was little sympathy for farmers who, in any case, pay only 3p per litre for their special red diesel.

He had been impressed by Gordon Brown’s steadfastness towards the fuel protesters and had been surprised to discover that the UK is about the only country in the world that does not charge the oil companies royalties for extracting our oil, nor are they taxed on it. They are getting North Sea oil on the cheap.

Members present briefly discussed the fuel price protests and no one expressed support for the actions taken or the sentiments behind them.

  Pensions

Pensions were the other main issue. The 75p rise was the biggest mistake that the Government has made but the Tories won’t have the money to link pensions to earnings and, in any case, have no intention of doing so. It seems that they and the Liberals are trying to outbid each other in the grand cause of electoral advantage.

As we know, Rodney Bickerstaff and John Edmunds took a strong line in favour of linking pensions to earnings and Jeremy said that he had been swayed first this way and then that by the arguments of a really fascinating debate. In the end he had been persuaded by Jeff Rooker’s summing up to support the Party line. When the votes were counted the constituency delegates had voted 2 : 1 in favour of the Government line and the unions 2 : 1 against. The unions have more votes so the party line was defeated. And although the link between pensions and earnings won’t be restored by this or any other Government important concessions had been won. These would benefit all pensioners with the most needy getting more support.

  Nelson Mandela

Delegates had been bowled over by Nelson Mandela’s personality and presence. He has a complete lack of bitterness and was very generous in his praise that the anti-apartheid movement had received from the British people in general and the Labour Party in particular. A great deal of his speech was reported in the post-conference newsletter but hardly any mention was made about one his main themes, the scourge of AIDS in Africa. He had said that there is one S. African University where 40% of students are HIV positive and in one African country seven cabinet ministers are similarly afflicted.

  Role of the Unions

Graham asked about the role of the unions during conference and Jeremy thought that they had achieved about the right balance. There had obviously been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing on the pensions question and he believed that they had won significant concessions from the Government. During the debate on immigration and asylum they had also persuade the Government to take a more liberal line. They have accepted that many questions on this issue, especially the vouchers scheme, need to be reconsidered and this will be done.

  Tony Blair's Speech

Jeremy said that Tony Blair’s speech had been very impressive, although he couldn’t remember much of it. He had, however, aimed it much more at the part members than ever before. Anyone would think that there was an election in the offing.

He had picked up a mountain of literature at the conference and one booklet in particular “300 gains From a Labour Government” was thought particularly useful and John said that he would find out about obtaining some copies (via http://www.griffithsmp.co.uk)

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