Has the Collins Review actually made any progress yet?

Today the Guardian reports that the party might consider delaying changes to the Labour/union link for five years – or only ask new union members to affiliate directly to Labour – as Ray Collins attempts to square the circle on Labour’s relationship with the unions and trade unionists.

The party are publicly writing the report off as speculation – but it’s clear there’s more than an element of truth to it.

In reality such a situation was always inevitable. Ed Miliband was never going to “ram through” his proposals – despite some of the rhetoric that was being deployed earlier this year. As I said at the time, “the watchword will be consensus, not confrontation”. The Tories have begun their predictable carping about Labour “caving in” to the unions – but the fact is the unions are a part of the party, and Miliband was always going to have to take them with him to get party reform done. Once it was confirmed that the final decision on the reforms would be taken by a Special Conference (where 50% of the votes are held by the unions) it became inevitable that consensus would need to rule the day if Miliband was going to avoid defeat.

And avoid defeat he must – for obvious reasons. But he can’t be seen to abort his reform plans. As I’ve written before:

“If Miliband were to turn around and say “actually, there will be no reforms, sorry about that”, his leadership would be effectively (and quite possibly actually) finished.”

So it’s no surprise that different potential solutions are being floated that could allow an agreement to be reached – Miliband needs it, but so does everyone else in the party (there’s an election coming, if you hadn’t heard).

What’s worrying is that so far though is that no real sense of a preferred and genuinely workable solution seems to be emerging. Suggestions like delaying implementation of a new scheme (or it only applying to new would be Labour affiliates) have been kicking around for months now – since the moment Miliband announced the plan to reform the union link – but they’re not really considered any more popular or workable by many of those in Labour’s affiliated unions. So the impasse remains.

The question is – has the Collins Review actually made any progress yet? Nothing concrete seems to have emerged (it certainly didn’t at conference). Many discussions are happening behind the scenes. And yet all we’ve got today are old, vague plans that look like a bit of a fudge being rehashed in the papers. A solution that works for everyone is possible here – but it doesn’t seem to be getting any closer. And the deadline for the consultation on the reforms only runs for another 3 weeks.

There are 5 things the Collins Review needs to get right on Labour and the unions – so far it’s clear that Collins is trying to tackle the question of the timetable, but that still leaves the thorny subjects of membership, funding, democracy and other affiliates. And a matter of weeks to find a workable solution…

I don’t envy him.