Tidemill

I am proposing the following motion to the Lewisham Deptford Labour Party General Committee.

This CLP resolves to send the following motion to London Regional Conference

“This Conference notes

1. The passing of Composite 5 on Housing at Labour Conference 2017
2. Jeremy Corbyn’s leader’s speech in which he stated “Regeneration under a Labour government will be for the benefit of the local people, not private developers, not property speculators … [&]… councils will have to win a ballot of existing tenants and leaseholders before any redevelopment scheme can take place.”
3. That Lewisham Council Strategic Planning committee approved planning permission to redevelop the Old Tidemills School site involving the redevelopment (destruction) of 16 council houses and the loss of Tidemills Community Gardens.
4. That further planning permissions involving the loss of council houses in Lewisham Deptford have been prepared.
5. That Councils have a duty to follow the direction of the Mayor’s Housing Plan

This Conference calls on the Mayor of London to call in planning permissions granted which involve the destruction of social housing”

This CLP instructs the Secretary to write to the Mayor of London informing him of this motion calling on him to “call in” the Tidemills Planning Application.

 …

Godalming Three

I have now spoken to one of the Guildford Three. They were expelled for organising a public meeting to explore a common/shared candidate. The General Committee had voted to explore the possibility of a “Progressive Alliance” candidate. A public meeting was organised, the three Labour organisers were expelled. A candidate was imposed. In response, the General Committee voted a zero budget for the SW Surrey Campaign and donated what they would have spent to their nearest marginal, Ealing Central. Most of SW Surrey CLP’s leadership travelled to support Labour candidates in other seats.

Steve Williams, after his expulsion, nominated Louise Irving, the NHAP candidate. As he says, once expelled the rules have no power.

The three people expelled are all Corbyn supporters, of course, and leading activists in the CLP.

On one hand, you can see how a beleaguered head office, gearing up for an election they expected to be smashed in, would have had little time to deal with this in a sensitive fashion, but they are so used to getting away with it, that they roll out the old rule 2.I.4.B again. …

Longevity

I have installed the wordpress broken links plugin on several of my blogs. I am sort of fascinated in how many they generate on the first run. Obviously the wayback machine is of some help, but I remember taking the decision, on advice, that using hyperlinks was better, morally and technically than leeching the content. I don’t think either of us expected my little bliki to outlast some of the resources I was linking to. …

Runaway

Someone pointed me at this article by Alex Nunns in Red Pepper, “The Labour conference that the media failed to report”, I think he catches what happened well. I have bookmarked it on Diigo, and highlighted two quotes.

This was a conference full of conflicting dynamics, but with an overarching story of left delegates gradually asserting themselves as they learned the ropes…..

Having organised for months in advance of contentious votes over rule changes, many grassroots activists felt deflated when their efforts were displaced by an old-fashioned deal brokered by the leadership at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) in the week before Brighton.

 …

Sink

Another thought on Labour’s Rules, some are arguing that there are too many Londoners on the NEC. I don’t know if I agree, with the proposition or the proposed remedy. It would seem that the critical accountability should be political.

My experience of regionally based national committees is that they act as a barrier to the political majority, particularly if the regions elect their own representatives. Anyway, the CLP representatives are no longer so London centric. (There is only one.) …

Stuffed parrots…

I picked this up on my way out of Labour Conference, it’s an interesting review, from a 1st time delegate, a supporter of the Labour Party Marxists. The author talks about the use of late notice and secrecy to manipulate delegates, the lottery of speaker selection, just as well he didn’t see the speaker called in 2014, for waving a baby, and the opacity (and again luck) of reference back on the Policy Forums reports. He talks of the pressure on CLPs to remit their rule changes despite their importance. Worth reading; the platform’s power is no less than it was, we have some way to go. …

Windows RT

A friend asked about Windows RT. I have a windows RT tablet, made by Nokia. it’s core difference from other windows OS’s is that it runs on ARM processors. This means that the versions/instances of the apps are different from those that run on the other versions of windows which need Intel processors. The app. choice in the store is much more limited than if using other versions of windows, but all the basics are there and it can co-operate with Microsoft & Google’s cloud services. It has a desktop application panel, and so can use MS Office applications and the file explorer.

Microsoft have decommitted from RT so the versions of the software (apps & OS) that work are old. This includes internet explorer, which means that some/many web apps will no longer work and places a future risk on the use of such web/apps. Third Party developers no longer develop for this platform. This makes it hard to keep up to date. This will only et worse.

I bought a Bluetooth keyboard (and mouse) and use it mainly for blogging on the road as it is much lighter than my current first choice laptop.

I like the Metro interface but I think RT’s time is past, even if it is used by Felicity Smoak. …