After much build up, Ed Miliband will stand up in Bournemouth at 11.30 this morning and tell Trade Unionists that his plans for party reform represent a “historic opportunity to bring people back into the decisions which affect their lives” – whilst accepting that he is taking “a risk” and faces a “massive challenge” to convince union members to join the party. Miliband will say:
“I am a One Nation politician. And One Nation is about governing for the whole country. To do this we are going have to build a new kind of Labour Party. A new relationship with individual trade union members.
“Some people ask: what’s wrong with the current system? Let me tell them: we have three million working men and women affiliated to our party. But the vast majority play no role in our party. They are affiliated in name only. That wasn’t the vision of the founders of our party. I don’t think it’s your vision either. And it’s certainly not my vision.
“That’s why I want to make each and every affiliated trade union member a real part of their local party, making a real choice to be a part of our party so they can have a real voice in it.
“This is an historic opportunity to begin bringing people back into the decisions which affect their lives. It means we could become a Labour party not of 200,000 people, but 500,000, or many more. A party rooted every kind of workplace in the country, a party rooted in every community in the country, a genuine living, breathing movement.
“Of course, it is a massive challenge. It will be a massive challenge for the Labour Party to reach out to your members in a way that we have not done for many years and persuade them to be part of what we do. And like anything that is hard it is a risk. But the bigger risk is just saying let’s do it as we have always done it.
“It is you who have been telling me year after year about a politics that is detached from the lives of working people. We need to build a party truly rooted in the lives of all the working people of Britain once more.
“That’s why we must have the courage to change. I respect those who worry about change. I understand. But I disagree. It is the right thing to do.
“Change can happen. Change must happen. And I am absolutely determined that this change will happen. It is the only way to build a truly One Nation party so we can build a One Nation country.”
Miliband will also take the opportunity to lambast Cameron for his attacks on trade unionists, saying:
“We have a Prime Minister, who writes you and your members off. Who doesn’t just write you off, but oozes contempt for you from every pore. What does he say about you? He says your members are a “threat to our economy”. Back to the enemy within.
“Six and a half million people in Britain. Who teach our children, who look after the sick, who care for the elderly, who build our homes, who keep our shops open morning, noon and night. They’re not the enemy within. They’re the people who make Britain what it is.
“How dare he? How dare he insult people, members of trade unions as he does? How dare he write off whole sections of our society? One Nation Conservatives, would be turning in their graves if they could hear the nasty, divisive, small-minded rhetoric of the leader of their once great party.”
Much attention is already being given to what kind f reception Miliband might receive from TUC conference delegates, but it’s important to remember amidst all of the fuss about “Labour and the unions” that only 18 of the TUCs 50+ unions are affiliated to the Labour Party. Many of those present may see no downside in haranguing the Labour leader…
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