Speech to Labour Party Conference : 28 September 2011

Good morning conference, members, comrades.

Patrick Dennehy from Dewsbury CLP in Yorkshire, first-time delegate.

I would like to move the following, as proposed in the delegate’s report Chapter 3: The creation of a new clause, Clause I to stipulate that all constitutional amendments, submitted by affiliated organisations and CLPS that are accepted as in order shall be timetable for debate at the first annual conference following submission.

Considering members were asked to vote on and accept a new 100-page rule book that they had sight of for only three hours, we do not think it beyond the wit of the NEC to consider short statements from CLPs within a few months.  Dewsbury has had to wait 18 months from initial proposal for me to stand here today and move what is effectively only a four-line motion.

David Cameron runs a party dominated by top down management.  We believe the opposite; that grassroots members should have as much opportunity to influence and be involved in the formation of party policy as those at the top.

As a party we are still learning the lessons and paying the price for ignoring the thoughts and opinions of our grassroots members during our 13 years in power.  We became complacent about our grassroots support and it cost us.

If we are truly going to take our party forward on the principles of refounding Labour then it’s motions like this that need to become our core – positive change involving al members not the top-down dictats as demonstrated by the party currently leading Governement.

This resolution goes someway to redressing the balance and we hope, on behalf of Dewsbury CLP, that you will accept it.

Thank You conference.

Time For A Cuppa And A Chat

I’m back.

Not that I ever went away you understand – I’ve just been filling my time with other projects.

Namely a new-found love of Twitter @pacey_patrick and my pictorial blog: thisisingaleesh.blogspot.com.

However a quote I read today from @BristolEditor sparked this blog back into life; in his 10 Commandments of Social Media (trust me to pay attention to something with a Catholic reference) it was Number 5 that jumped up and slapped me squarely round the chops:

One number and four stark words: 5. Thou shall not kill.

Guess I'd better stop sharpening my axe and polishing my gun then.

But, I digress.  So the quote:

“Nothing is quite as bad in social media-land as an account which is established and then sits there. Dead. No content. Nothing contributed. Setting up a social media space, such as a...blog, and then not adding content to it regularly is a sure-fire way of killing your social media credibility in front of a global audience. Add content. Add value. Just add!”

Therefore I decided it was high time I launched myself at Sebastian Vettel pace right back out there into the blogosphere.

As is probably clear from previous posts, my blog has two central themes: politics and my journalistic ambitions.

And in many ways the topics themselves explain my 3 month blog-lethargy.

1) The Tories and Lib Dems have been killing each other in the last few months, so I haven’t felt the need for blog-based Tory bashing; I simply sat back and let them get on with it, waiting to pick off the spoils at the opportune moment – more of that to come soon.

2)As for journalism, I haven’t had much to blog about there either; four months down the line, £3,000+ lighter and I’m still working for @bradmanagement (which is not to be sniffed at in the current climate).

However, I’m still hunting and ever optimistic – I’ve been wanting this for 15 years so it’s in my nature to be patient. 

My job hunt has taken me to some interesting places (Congleton among them); yesterday’s destination of choice was Dubai (lots of journalism jobs out there), although I’m not sure whether my forthright political views would be that well received in the land of milk, honey and erm…oil. Then again I should at least be able to tap up @Bin_Hammam for cheap Qatar World Cup tickets, if they ever get to host it that is.

So what's happened while I've been away?

Crucially,

Doreen and Neville Lawrence appear another step closer to getting justice for their murdered son Stephen http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13438629

And,

A court officially confirmed what anyone who saw the G20 video footage already knew – newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson was ‘unlawfully killed’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HECMVdl-9SQ

Everything else simply pales into insignificance.

Power To The People

“While we all sup sorrow with the poor, There's a song that will linger forever in our ears, Oh, hard times, come again no more.”

It started on the 6 May 2010, when the British public in its wisdom decided it did not trust David Cameron or his party enough to run this country of ours.

However Cameron is like a car salesman in a polyester suit, who smiles at you as he sells you a ‘fantastic bargain’, then dances with glee when you drive off in what is really an MOT failure.  In the days following the election Cameron went into full wheeler-dealer mode and after convincing Nick Clegg to dance with the devil and part with every liberal value he ever held, he weaselled his way into Number 10 like the snake into the Garden of Eden.

Once there he thought that was it, he thought the hard work was done.  The monster had his hands on the keys of power and off we all sailed on the Big Ship Tory with Cameron’s hands on the tiller.

But this time, things are different.  This time, from the word go, people showed they were not prepared to sit there and trust this man; a man who claims to rule our country despite never having achieved an electoral mandate.

And that is why the coalition’s first two-thirds of this year have been marked by u-turns and backtracking.

Let’s look at what has happened to some of their major projects:

Increasing Tuition Fees – protests and direct action leaving Cameron bloodied and battered although proposals will still go ahead.

Scrapping EMA – looking like going ahead despite vociferous protests.

Scrapping the Building Schools for Future project – abandoned.

Plans to sell the forests – abandoned.

Plans to impose a 10% housing benefit cut for anyone unemployed for more than a year – dropped.

Big Society – crumbling.

Cameron’s hopes of avoiding a referendum on electoral reform – failed.

And today what does a Tory think-tank propose? Scrapping the National Minimum Wage.  You couldn’t make it up.  This must be opposed, as must the complete and systematic dismantling of the NHS and cuts to other frontline services like the Police.

But why have the projects listed above been stopped, halted, cancelled, turned around?

Because of the actions of a defiant public mobilized against the power brokers in Downing Street. People who realise that we have to do all in our power to stop the total and premeditated decimation of everything we hold dear.

Peace and Love may be the values we all aspire to, but sometimes it takes direct action to make people sit up and take note.  And, led by a new generation of protesters, headed excellently by the students, this defiant response has now been taken up by many other open-eyed and fearful citizens.  People who realise that this government, this Tory government cannot be allowed to rule in the way it wants, cannot be allowed to push through the plans it has. 

The ‘Big Society’ plan has been exposed at every twist and turn for what it really is, a cloak of the most transparent kind, used in a failed attempt to hide from the reality that Cameron wants to impose on us – a society decimated by cuts at all levels.  Except the highest levels – not the bankers. 

The men who make the money to buy the spoons that have been in the mouths of Cameron and his cronies from the moment they were born. They’re safe.  They’re DC’s ‘pals’.  Much like the MP for Dewsbury, Simon Reevell, who refuses to give up his highly-paid job as a barrister, and in fact dedicates time to being in court instead of being in his constituency carrying out case work.

How ironic that Dewsbury has lost its court services.

On the 10 October 1980 Margaret Thatcher made a speech which has been oft-quoted ever since.

She said: “To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!"

It is this speech that gives us hope today, because despite what he and some of his supporters may think, Cameron is not Thatcher.  He does not have the right to even be mentioned in the same breath.  He is a weak man.  A posh boy in a posh suit.  Someone who wishes he had half the strength, power and respect of Mrs Thatcher. If he did, we should all be very worried.  And every flight out of Britain since May 7 would have been fully booked.

Nobody who lived through the 80s wants to go back there again.  Even people who didn’t live through the 80s but were born before 1997 remember the overwhelming relief and unconfined joy that greeted the dispatching of the Tories on 1 May 1997. It would appear some of that spirit is alive and well in little corners of this land.  All we need is something to fan the embers and get the flames glowing once more.

The recent uprisings in Algeria and Egypt have illustrated the power of the people, and the effect of public demonstrations.

Britain, is slightly more democratic than those two countries, and hopes of a collapse in the coalition and an early election may still be (are) ridiculously optimistic.  But make no mistake, it’s a lot more likely than it looked on Wednesday May 12 2010.

These anti-government protests are not just the rantings and ravings of a few either, it is bigger than that this time round.  If more local authorities follow the example of Liverpool City Council and opt out of ‘The Big Society’ Cameron could soon have a full scale rebellion on his hands.

If he doesn’t, he’ll still have the public to answer to.  And the unions.  The poor, The dispossessed, The Working Class, The Middle Class.  In the words of Mr Marley “Get Up, Stand Up, Stand Up For Your Rights.”

Let me leave you with the words to the famous protest song “The World Turned Upside Down” :

The sin of property
We do disdain
No man has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Spring up at their command

They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feed the rich
While poor folk starve

We work we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to the masters
Or pay rent to the lords
Still we are free
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory
Stand up now

From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers’ claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed
But still the vision lingers on

You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The orders came to cut them down

Change Of Tack

This blog started out as a way for me to document my time on the NCTJ Diploma course at News Associates in Manchester (now the best NCTJ course in the country!).  It was also meant to give me the opportunity to offer my point of view on the world at large.

As my time at News Associates has now ended the thrust of the topics of my blog may change slightly.  However I intend to keep using it to broadcast to the world at large.

I make no apology or excuse for the fact that I will now become (as if I wasn’t before!) overtly and deliberately political in my musings. Like journalism, politics is something close to my heart.  Had it not been for News Associates, then I probably would have run for local council this year…but that’s a story for another day.

My hope is that you have enjoyed reading my blog so far and I hope you will continue to enjoy what I have to say from here on in.

And it will be kicking off in typically ebullient fashion, so read on to my next post.

Billy Sups Up

Bonus points to anyone that can name this song:

“Hey, don't write yourself off yet, It's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on. Just try your best, try everything you can.

Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be alright (alright).”

I cast my mind back to a time almost a year ago (February 2010) to be exact.  That’s when I signed up for News Associates, officially.  Having decided in the December previous that it was the place for me. 

I distinctly remember the interview that followed the exam, I distinctly remember how News Associates were still operating under the old system, the old system where I already had the Reporting (news-writing as it was then called) already under my belt.  I distinctly remember being told I wouldn’t need to re-do it.  I distinctly remember the first day at News Associates and being told the course had changed, they were operating under a different system, and I’d have to re-do Reporting.

Tomorrow, I really do have to re-do Reporting.  The irony that it was the one module I ended up flunking isn’t lost on me.

However, I can write.  I know I can write.  I’m not Billy Big Bollocks, but I do not have the BBC on my CV without being able to write.

However, anyone that knows me knows I’ve always been a bit hit and miss with these things.  But like a cat with 9 lives, I’ve always landed on my feet.  And I’m hoping the same applies again tomorrow.  Last chance saloon, got to pull a performance out.

On the 8 May 2010 Leeds United needed to beat Bristol Rovers to secure promotion to the Championship.   For most of the 11 players on duty it was the biggest game they had ever played, against a team that were no great shakes in League 1.  As the second half got under way they found themselves 1-0 down with less than 40 minutes remaining.  Not only did they have their own destiny to play for, they had the hopes of 38,000 in the ground and millions more around the world on their shoulders.  No one associated with Leeds United wanted yet another play-off attempt.

Out of the depths they plucked goals in the 59th and 63rd minutes to secure the win that guaranteed promotion.

Now I am not, and never will be, a professional footballer, but this is the task that awaits me tomorrow.

So for myself, Will, Debs, Anna & Jack (I think that’s it), then I’m looking to my favourite song of 2010 for inspiration “Don’t Stop Believing”.

And for anyone that read my rants on the News Associates Facebook wall from Friday through to Monday, then just to say, yes, even now knowing my result I maintain I would not have sat the resit tomorrow if I didn’t have the results.

Stubborn? Stupid? You decide.  This Is Me Being Me, That’s Just The Way I Am (after 5 months of me, I’m sure you all know that).

Wish me luck; I’m off to read those [facking] yellow sheets so that [by and large] I can get [in their faces] one last time.

The Bell Has Rung For The Last Lap...

So here we go again, New Year, same as the old year.  For the next three weeks at least. 

January 24 is the date of my final two exams.  The date of my final day at 111 Piccadilly.

That thought fills me with dread and now I am fully beginning to appreciate the beauty and generosity of having my old job to go back to in February.

But, god willing and all fingers and toes crossed I will hopefully be fully NCTJ qualified by then and be ready to unleash my talents on the huge pool of jobs out there.  Ok, tiny pool. Fountain. Well. Pond. Stream. Puddle….a brief sojourn back in Bradford does have some appeal though - measured primarily in £s!

It was about this time last year that I made the decision that 2010 would be the year I embarked on the NCTJ fast track course.  And now here I am, about to complete.  The pre Christmas stress of exams and portfolio are out the window, and are replaced with the slightly less stressful sport and court reporting modules.

I am still nervously checking the members section of the NCTJ site waiting for them to update the exam results – until then I’m still not convinced I’ve passed Law or PA.   Maybe that’s just me?  Reporting results also seem to be taking forever to come through, and I’m not sure what Richard’s thoughts on my portfolio will be.  Cutting and sticking was never my strong point!

Christmas passed by in a haze of eating, drinking, football and fireworks and thoughts of work did not figure very highly.  Now as the return of the snow reminds us that we are still in the depths of Winter, so the dreaded words “court reporting mock” remind me that there is still a long way to go yet.

Like a lower league football team,  leading at half time against a Premier league team in the FA Cup (January 3^rd, Remember the date…) it’s worth remembering that the job is still only half complete.

Proud To Be British? By the end of 2011 you won't be, not in Cameron's Britain

There is a distinct difference between being a supporter of something, and being an apologist for that same thing, or for elements connected to that thing.
I am a Leeds United supporter, but I am not a Ken Bates apologist, and I do not claim to support everything he does in the name of the club.

In the same way, I am a Labour party supporter, member to be exact.  But I am not, and will not be an apologist for everything they do - and I do not claim to be so.

There is a folk song the chorus of which is: “We’ll sweep away the old year, and bring the New Year in...”
However, looking back now at the start of 2011 as the black clouds of austerity blow in over the horizon, are you proud, can you be proud that Labour were deposed?  Or more accurately, can any of us be proud of the Government that we have been lumbered with? Anybody that is probably won't be by this time next year.

I would prefer to direct your thoughts to the Joni Mitchell lyrics in Big Yellow Taxi: "Don't it always seem to go, That you don't know what you've got till it's gone."

Before we all start getting carried away with the optimism of the New Year, and dreaming up resolutions which doubtless we’ll break before the week is out, allow me, if I may, to direct your attention towards an excellent column in yesterday’s Sunday Mirror.  Written by Jason Cowley it outlines in stark detail what 2011 may really hold in store for Britain:

"Like most people of a certain age, I can ­recall exactly where I was and what I was doing on the day Lady Diana married Prince Charles in the summer of 1981.

I was 15 and, along with nearly everyone else, caught up in the excitement of it all.

But even then, nothing seemed quite right to me. A gilded princess, golden carriages, the opulence of St Paul’s Cathedral – what did any of this have to say about life in modern Britain?

In the intervening period, ­everything and nothing has changed. And the similarities ­between 1981 and 2011 are striking, including plans for another ­national holiday to celebrate ­another royal wedding in April.

In 1981, Britain was in turmoil. The chill wind of Thatcherism was blowing through the land. ­Unemployment was rising sharply. There was social unrest and riots in the inner cities.

A Tory ­government had used an ­“emergency budget” to herald a new age of austerity. VAT was ­increased from 8 to 15 per cent.

There were punitive cuts in ­public spending.

The welfare state was under assault. Labour was in ­retreat.

Today there’s a comparable sense of crisis.

Trade union leader Brendan Barber has warned that it will be a “horrible year for the coalition” as the fightback against the cuts begins in earnest.

The details of the Big Squeeze to come are stark. On Tuesday, VAT goes up from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent as David Cameron and his chums start to pick our pockets.

VAT is a regressive tax, which hits the poor hardest, because it is they who are compelled to spend. George Osborne, the Chancellor, has said that the VAT rise – which will cost the average household £450 a year – is “unavoidable”, just as David Cameron used his new year message to reiterate that the cuts were “tough but necessary”.

But let’s be straight on this.

These are political decisions by the ­Bullingdon Brothers, not ­economic necessities.

There were alternatives.

For example, the Government could have introduced a far steeper levy on the reckless bankers.

Britain is, according to Gavin Kelly, head of the ­Resolution ­Foundation and a former deputy chief of staff at 10 Downing Street, in “the midst of the biggest squeeze on living standards since the 1970s”.

In real terms, wages are falling just as the cost of living is rising. Over the next few months ­everything from train fares to fuel duty will increase sharply.

Meanwhile, cuts in tax credits and to welfare benefits will make an already difficult situation worse for millions.

On top of this, as many as one million people aged between 16 and 24 are unemployed, ­including 100,000 graduates. They are the so-called Lost Generation.

In 1981, the soundtrack to a summer of social unrest was “Ghost Town” by the Specials, an anti-Thatcher protest song which went to number one.

“No job to be found in this country,” sang the Specials. “Government leaving the youth on the shelf. Can’t go on no more. The people getting ­angry.”

Any of this sound ­familiar?"

Viva La Revolution!