Lies, damn lies & statistics

I am catching up on my reading, and came across this article in the Economist, about the prosecution of Greece’s Chief Statistician, Andreas Georgiou. The article looks at his predecessors in the dock, but finishes with the old canard, Lies, damn lies and statistics, but in this case, statistics is rightly seen as an alternative to the lies. Mrs. L. would approve. …

Labour’s Conference Lost

Labour’s Conference Lost

I was privileged to attend Labour’s Annual Conference in Liverpool as a voting delegate. The Conference was the book-end of a summer in which the Labour Party re-opened the debates about programme and strategy which many had thought finished last year. This article reports my experience and views; it is quite long, about 2750 words and is broken up into sections, Unity and the membership, some comments on the politics of Conference, a short section on the future, also covering the Tuesday atmosphere and Wednesday’s Leader’s speech. This is followed by a commentary on the Rules debate and the surrounding shenanigans; the main part of this article/report is concluded with comments on the state of the debate on Immigration and Brexit.  …

Labour HOLD

A busy day at the office, then out to the streets of Evelyn ward to campaign for Joyce Jacca who’s standing for Labour in a bye-election for Lewisham Council. A sharp one in the Dog & Bell then onto the Catford Constitutional Club to hear the results  and those of the other bye-election in Brockley.

Labour held both seats, well!

ooOOooo

 

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Last Chance

Last Chance

Given Dianne Abbott’s appointment as Shadow Home Secretary I feel there is an opportunity to change and challenge Labour’s position of abstention on the Regulatory Powers Bill. There is some urgency to this as today is the last day in which Peers can place amendments to the 3rd Reading.

The arguments in favour of passing the RPB is that the current surveillance laws are inappropriate for today’s technology and the current regulatory regime is insufficiently powerful. The arguments against are that the legalisation of past illegal practice and the authorisation of new powers are a massive breach of the rights to justice and privacy, there is zero proportionality and the proposals are of unknown effectiveness. …

Delegates & Mandates

Just looking through the Labour Party’s rules, as you do. They state, in Rule, 3.3.1.B

When a Party conference is called at short notice, the secretaries of affiliated organisations and CLPs shall, on receiving the summons,instantly take steps to secure representation of their organisation in accordance with the constitution and these rules.
The special conference called to discuss the Collins Review was convened in breach of this rule, the National Office (i.e. the Compliance Unit) ruled that the delegates from the previous conference would represent the CLPs/Affiliated Organisations. I might be misunderstanding the meaning of “secure representation”, but since attendance is not mandatory,  I don’t think so.
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