Author: Dave

The problem with the NEC rulings on voter suppression isn’t the levying of a £25 fee on registered supporters, although I think the fee is too high (as are the non-concessionary membership fees); it is doing this in conjunction with the dubious legality of prohibiting them from any long term relationship with Labour Party and the use of this mechanism to allow richer people to buy their way around the dubiously legal freeze date of 12^th January & 24^th June. Allowing the registered supporter registration to be available for only two days cannot be designed to maximise participation.

Like many I argued together with our local party comrades against the Collins rule changes, but we lost. Conference has said, twice, it started in 2010, that registered supporters will have a say in choosing our Leader.

The NEC rulings also stop all those people who have joined since the referendum from voting in both the Leadership and the NEC election. It is cynical narcissistic ploy, promoting the interest of faction above that of mass membership party. …

I can’t wait to get my hands on my NEC ballot papers and vote for Black, Woolfson, Webbe, Williams, Shawcroft & Willsman; the Momentum/Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate. Elect an NEC that wants to be accountable to members.

Oops. Four names starting with W, that can’t help. …

For members of Lewisham Deptford CLP, if you have a membership card naming me as the contact/secretary, you joined before the Leadership and NEC freeze date deadline, all you have to do now, is ensure you are paid up to date and don’t fall foul of the no abuse rule and hope you haven’t done so recently. I cannot help you to check your arrears status, although some people can do so for themselves on Labour’s MembersNet, which you can activate here.

I have created a short URL for the tweet also: http://bit.ly/29R60aR …

How sad that if one googles ‘Johanna Baxter’ all we get is pointers to her statements on Tuesday’s NEC about bullying and intimidation and Corbyn’s failure to protect her on having a secret ballot.

I have voted for Johanna several times, her centrist and non-slate appeal was what I think the party needed and the fact that she had clean hands of the NEC’s failures during the New Labour ascendency also appealed.

With respect to the events on Tuesday, I am sorry she felt intimated and upset. However, the vote was secret, although this is contrary to the rules. Representatives should vote in such away that they can be held to account by their electors. Hate crimes and fraud should be referred to the police.

Additionally she had asked for members to tell her what they think about the incumbent being included on the ballot paper, the establishment of a freeze date and the role of last year’s registered supporters. I replied using the email I have for her i.e. by replying to a mail she sent me while campaigning for her election to the NEC.  I also posted a version of the letter to my blog; personally I think this is exceptionally reasonable, I can’t have been the only one. …

Just realised the NEC election freeze date is the day after the referendum. Deliberate or stupid? …

In the Labour Party, we come together on the basis of values, agree a programme and develop a manifesto and only then, choose candidates to pursue these policies. …

One of Shami Chakrabarti’s key recommendations based on the assessment that the Labour Party doesn’t have the skills and knowledge to run a legally safe disciplinary process; she recommends the appointment of a General Counsel and increased training and legal accreditation of members of the Compliance Unit.

I question whether the Compliance Unit should provide the secretariat for the NCC and the Disputes committee. In the private sector, the role of Compliance is to ensure that the whole organisation keeps to the law. It requires a segregation of duties to perform this work. Chakrabarti has recognised this that the same unit cannot prosecute disciplinary offences and ensure that the prosecution is within the law. In corporate governance terms, Compliance is a second line of defence. It should be ensuring that the membership department does its job within the law.

Further complication in structuring the Compliance function is the EU’s recent General Data Protection Regulation. This states that any private sector organisation employing more than 250 staff must have a Data Protection Officer, who is adequately skilled and resourced. This person must understand the Law and “adequate technical protection”. I suspect that the Labour Party head office and the Compliance Unit lacks these skills too.

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Labour NEC going on about whether the incumbent  , McNicol receives this legal advice placing all documentation under legal hold against destruction. It also states that the Henderson aka Doughty Chambers advice was commissioned by the Labour Party. Henderson says he’s on the ballot paper since the rules by which he is challenged are those where there is no vacancy. …

There is an episode of “The thick of it” where Nicola Murray, the Leader of the Labour Party is convinced by her advisors in the interests of common sense and bipartisanship to adopt two of the coalition’s policies. She chooses or has chosen for her two poicies so horrible, that the coalition drop them. How’s that welfare bill vote and supporting Osborne’s mandatory budget surplus work for you now? …