Conference Diary: Those New Policies Keep On Coming

Well its day 2 and delegates are giddy with excitement at the number of new policies we’re rolling out. We’re all super keen to get out on the doorstep and start selling them. Overnight the focus on the Tory cost of crisis has intensified with our new commitment to offer increased free childcare to 25 hours for working mums and dads with 3 and 4 years olds.

This is just the sort of policies parents are looking out for from us.

Meanwhile in a master stroke we’ve said we want the OBR to fully audit all our manifesto policies so there can be absolutely no doubt that all our plans are watertight. The respected (and Conservative) Chair of the Treasury Select Committee Andrew Tyrie backs the idea though sadly Tory High Command is pouring cold water on it. What are they so sacred of? MPs of all parties can already commission policy analysis from the House of Commons Library and no one would accuse them of getting ‘dragged into politics.’

The Tories are becoming increasing shrill in their denunciation of every new policy item we’re announcing. Yesterday they cobbled together a series of old press releases and some research based on absurd assumptions as a ‘dossier.’ Seems they had asked Treasury civil servants to produce costings supposedly of our ‘spending’ plans.  You would have thought with working people worse off, Treasury Ministers should be asking civil servants to come up with concrete ideas to help relieve the cost of living spiral, but sadly not.

Of course there is an obvious irony in that on one day the Tories boast about help from the independent Treasury civil service for their Tory attack work while the next day say the independent OBR can’t possibly audit a political party’s manifesto plans. But none of us are losing any sleep over the Tory attack operation. I recall back in the day when I worked in Millbank we effectively ignored Iain Duncan Smith knowing how useless he was. All these Tory press releases and dossiers leave us to include they’re clearly rattled.

Conference floor briefly debated party reform yesterday but we’re aware this is a debate that will run over some months until next Spring. I managed to get called and spoke for only my second time in 17 years coming to Party Conference. The priority now is to ensure all parts of our federal party are engaged in this debate and of course we must maintain the collective voice. But with Tory membership plummeting – they have lost 230 members a week since David Cameron became leader – we have to look at ways we build a mass membership party compared to today’s Tory no-membership Party.

Is Blue Labour making a comeback? Does the blue backdrop to this year’s Conference set indicate Maurice Glassman’s influence is on the increase again?  It’s not just the Conference set that has had a redesign. The famous ‘yellow papers’ handed out every year by the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (led by my mate the inimitable Pete Willsman), have gone from their usual mustard yellow to lime green. Even Pete is a moderniser these days.