One Nation Conference? Not for poor Labour members

Full time Carers who care 35 hours + a week for a disabled or elderly relative receive the princely sum of £61.35pw for their efforts. Many carers like myself in reality care 24/7, 365 days a year. Already cut out of most activities like a meal out or a social evening with friends, our horizons under the Tory government have become narrower and narrower.

As Labour Party members, many of us look to the party to get our voices heard, our financial plight now so desperate we lag behind the unemployed by £10 a week in monetary terms, carers uncared for by a government who readily acknowledges we save the UK millions in care costs every year.

To then jump the hurdle, arrange respite care for the person(s) we care for perhaps, arranging our lives so we are able to get our voice heard from September 20-24 in Manchester at the Labour Party Conference, only to find the cost of attending is so prohibitive we are unable to attend, is frankly the straw that “breaks the carers back”.

You see for the unwaged, the carers, the disabled, the unemployed, the retired the cost to attend all 4 days at conference is £63. That is £1.65 more than my entire weeks carers allowance. £1.65 more than what all carers get to live on for over 35 hours a week of hard slog, hard graft that would buckle most people. Getting those few precious days off is battled for, pleaded and often begged for. To discover that the party who by tradition stands up for carers, our rights, our financial well being and acknowledges the sheer burden placed upon us, then prices our voices out and those of other working class people from Conference, totally defeats the object of “One Nation”. Ed Miliband wants all voices included in his Labour Party for the many. Then it has to be acknowledged, worked upon and policy changed for the poorest members of the Labour Party to be included.

None of us are fools. Poor Labour members know that the Labour Party are not funded by bankers like the Tories. We know funds need to be raised somehow. The Conference Dinner is £350 per head and is designed to fundraise as it is beyond the reach of many ordinary working Labour members, let alone the poor. But why is Conference priced out of our reach also?

Once transport and the ridiculous price of Manchester hotel accommodation is taken into account, alongside living expenses on food for the 4 days, the price is the same roughly as a family 1 week holiday! While the party have no sway on hotel prices, it can send a message that poor Labour members are welcome and are included at Conference by lowering its conference prices considerably. Even a 1 day pass is £28.

Plenty of advice like ‘ask your CLP ‘to send you is forthcoming. My CLP has sent the same person every year for decades and the issue is not even discussed, just jokily presumed and agreed to. Other poor members have been in touch and said the same. Often the same faces meet up from their CLP at conference every year, thus excluding anyone else from having the chance to attend. Perhaps a rule change here could be sought?

So I make a plea to the General Secretary and Ed Miliband, that while it may be too late for Conference 2014, look again at inclusion for poor Labour members and lower future conference prices so we feel part of “One Nation” and are not on the outside of the party looking in.

Let the Labour Party be for the many; not for those who can afford to pay.