Congress moved onto a debate called “Politics and the UK Constitution”. My branch had submitted a motion on proportional representation for Westminster, but failed to get support from our Region, so I withdrew it in the knowledge another Region has passed a similar motion. When we got to Blackpool, we discovered that that motion had also been withdrawn. One of two important lessons I learnt or re-learnt in this case, delegates need to be committed to the policies of their branch and their motions.
We debated a motion on rectifying the injustice to voters of MPs crossing the floor. It seems simple, but one of the speakers started from the assumption that a vote was a positive affirmation of support, which is violated when an MP or Councillor crosses the floor. Under 1st past the post this is not necessarily true, people often vote against people rather than for them, and now we can see that the electorate need to be protected against the malicious use of disciplinary and membership rules by parliamentary and council caucuses. The CEC asked for, and Conference agreed to refer the motion to the CEC. …