Guildford Delegates’ Reflections From This Year’s Labour Party Conference

Published on: 3 Oct, 2019
Updated on: 7 Oct, 2019

Guildford Labour delegates, Jacob Allen, Nick Bragger and Elizabeth Mpyisi at the party annual conference in Brighton.

by Brian Creese, vice-chair, & Jacob Allen, youth delegate, Guildford Labour Party

Until you attend an annual Labour Party conference, the crowded density of the bustling occasion is difficult to comprehend. About 13,000 people are crammed into a few hotels then they spill out and about around the conference centre on Brighton seafront.

At every moment, there are more things you want to do than you have time for. Everywhere, there are TV cameras, microphones being thrust at you, and in the milling crowds you will bump into members of the shadow cabinet as they rush from one speaking engagement to the next.

Listening to the media reports at the end of the day is a sobering experience. Clearly, these reporters and commentators have been somewhere else.

Saturday was dominated by Tom Watson. Days later, I was astonished to discover Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was in doubt? Why did no one warn us?

Tuesday was intense. When the Supreme Court ruled Boris Johnson’s proroguing of parliament unlawful, the atmosphere in the hall turned electric.

At a fringe meeting, we discussed with Mary Bousted, co-leader of the National Education Union, whether the Prime Minister had enough self-awareness to resign. We agreed. He didn’t.

Then, almost 24 hours earlier than planned, Jeremy’s speech lit the fuse that had been smouldering all day and sent the enthusiastic delegates away believing in a looming Labour victory.

What mattered most, of course, were the policy commitments. Highlights were a Green New Deal with a 2030 zero-carbon target, John McDonnell’s proposals for a four-day working week, a set of universal basic services and plans for a state-owned pharmaceuticals producer. Included were a new national care service and radical housing plans (here, Guildford delegates were involved in negotiations).

Our three delegates did great work both in and out of the hall. That included negotiation for three and a half hours on housing policy, voting for the various motions, including the one committing the party to a second EU referendum, and attending fringe meetings that would affect Guildford.

Jacob was at fringes on developing rural strategy and policy. Elizabeth, our women’s delegate, was involved in meetings on BAME representation. Nick attended meetings on developing a radical housing policy. Guildford Labour commends them for their hard work, and not just during the five-day conference.

Labour members now have the responsibility of passing these messages on to others with the passionate belief in fairness and equality that frame them.

A difficult task faces us, one we will tackle with enthusiasm. We need to show all the people of Guildford and the villages that Labour offers them the best, most caring future.

Responses to Guildford Delegates’ Reflections From This Year’s Labour Party Conference

Mark Bray-Parry Reply

October 3, 2019 at 6:28 pm

“What mattered most, of course, were the policy commitments…”. They read like a 2010 Green Party manifesto.

But they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Mark Bray-Parry is Guildford’s Green Party Parliamentary candidate.
Shelley Grainger Reply

October 12, 2019 at 6:18 pm

Mark Bray-Perry is right, although it’s not so much copying as “arriving at the same or similar conclusions”.

Until we get PR [proportional representation], which a lot of us in Labour support, only the Labour Party MPs will be able to enter Parliament in enough numbers to lead these policy initiatives.

As the only other genuinely progressive party in Parliament, we hope very much we can rely on Caroline Lucas’s support there. And your own, should you get elected.
- John Perkins Reply
  
  October 13, 2019 at 5:40 pm
  
  I struggle to understand how a party which is pursuing ideas that have been tried many times over the past century and always found to fail can think of themselves as “progressive”.
Brian Creese Reply

October 14, 2019 at 6:23 pm

Let us think of a few of those “failures”, John Perkins mentions.

There was the NHS of course – a total disaster that, all that free healthcare. And the setting up of the Welfare State, a safety net for everyone in the country.

Then, of course, there was the decriminalisation of male homosexuality and abortion, reform of divorce laws, the abolition of theatre censorship and capital punishment and various legislation addressing race relations and racial discrimination.

Also the creation of the Open University and the Equal Pay Act, ensuring equal pay for equal work regardless of gender, and more recently, the establishment of a national minimum Wage, family and pension credits.

I could go on. You may or may not dislike these progressive reforms but few are going to agree with you that they are all failures.

Brian Creese is a spokesperson for Guildford Labour
- John Perkins Reply
  
  October 15, 2019 at 12:03 pm
  
  I’m not sure the Labour party was solely responsible for all those wonderful things but I was referring to the insistence of its current leadership on espousing 19th-century economic ideas that were tested to destruction (sometimes literally) in the 20th century.
  
  We are now two decades into the 21st century and are entitled to expect some fresh thought.
Julian Cranwell Reply

October 16, 2019 at 6:00 pm

It’s all very well Guildford Labour declaring to be carbon neutral by 2030. However, they have consistently voted in favour of the ruinous Tory Local Plan, which will inflict so much damage to our local environment, air quality and so on.

How can they reconcile these conflicts?
Colin Cross Reply

October 17, 2019 at 9:56 am

It has always been a complete mystery to me as to why the two Labour councillors have consistently followed the voting patterns of the party in power at GBC. They have now morphed from being crypto-Tories to crypto-Lib Dems after the election in May.

Personally, I find that they are both pleasant individuals and easy to get on with but its hard to fathom their true political persuasions in relation to GBC’s policymaking failings down the years. The odious Local Plan being far the worst of these. Nevertheless, it was staunchly supported throughout by Labour at GBC

Perhaps the answer lies in how they prioritise other local issues before the protection of the green belt? Just a suggestion.

Colin Cross is the R4GV borough councillor for Lovelace.