| BBC strikes called off after £20million management climbdown Trade unions at the BBC have called off next week's planned 48-hour strike, in the wake of a second climbdown by the corporation's management on pensions reform which will cost licence fee payers up to £20million a year. telegraph.co.uk |
'Everything possible' done to rescue her Nato spokesperson Dominic Medley says everything possible was done to rescue Linda Norgrove and get her safely away from the people who took her hostage. bbc.co.uk |
Kate Moss: I'm not married Kate Moss has denied reports that she has secretly married her boyfriend Jamie Hince at a ceremony in Italy over the summer. telegraph.co.uk |
Labour has created cynicism with its policy-making process, says Peter Hain Hain, the new leader of Labour's policy forum, says ordinary members should feel more involvedLabour's method of making policy has not achieved its objectives, has been far too distant from ordinary party members and has created a great deal of cynicism, Peter Hain says today.Hain, the man chosen by Ed Miliband to lead Labour's policy forum, says in a Guardian interview: "I defend the policy forum principle, but there is a great deal of cynicism amongst party members that we need to address. If you disempower your membership, you start down the road to losing, and that is what happened during our 13 years of power."I feel rejuvenating our national policy forum is a precondition to winning the next election, and that is very much Ed Miliband's view. He is clear that we have to make policy in a very different way."Hain, one of the earliest big-name supporters of Ed Miliband, was unexpectedly not elected to the shadow cabinet. But Miliband appointed him shadow Welsh secretary and has nominated him to run the policy forum, succeeding Pat McFadden, a strong supporter of David Miliband and one of the most experienced figures inside the party.McFadden, also voted off the shadow cabinet, has decided not to take a frontbench role.Hain says Labour under Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair had been right in the 1990s to establish the national policy forum, largely replacing decision-making at the annual conference. He said: "It was an idea that was absolutely right, but it has lost its way and fallen into disrepair."Two attempts have been made, in 2003 and 2007, to improve the process of producing a rolling policy programme, but Hain says more reforms are needed.The 190-strong policy forum, he said, had "replaced a system of spatchcocking resolutions together on a Saturday morning in unwieldy contradictory composites that were then the scene of pitched battles on the floor of conference. That was not a sensible way of making serious policy for government."He said a balance had to be struck between giving shadow cabinet members the lead on policy making and allowing party membership, especially its 30,000 new recruits, to feel ownership of policy.He said: "There needs to be an audit trail so that ideas that come up from party members and constituencies to the policy forum can be tracked. At present they disappear into the ether. A lot of this could be done online. We can make it more transparent."He also criticised the way in which in the past policy forum members had "very large documents dumped on their laps" prepared by the joint policy commission, a body dominated by the cabinet.The forum should instead publish green papers, as well as make decisions on principles on big issues such as tuition fees, housing or welfare. "Not every single detail needs to be decided, and it is possible they could put options to conference," he said.He argued that if the policy forum had been allowed to discuss controversial issues such as foundation hospitals or tuition fees, which instead were battled over by Brownite and Blairite factions, "fewer people would have felt bounced, and the process would have been more creative". He said he also wanted to open up Labour thinking to people from outside the party. "I would like to see interested outsiders have an input as well. I see Labour as being the natural focus for progressive forces in civil society from trade unions, greens, faith groups, anti-poverty organisations, community groups and women's groups. So I hope the policy forum will not be just an internal policy group."He insisted the recent growth in Labour membership showed political parties were not in terminal decline.He added: "But we have to change and change big time, and recognise that parties need to change their style and learn how to engage in communities."He stressed: "We have to be realistic and I don't think you can freeze the party leadership in its reaction to events. It is very important that we don't saddle ourselves with policy too early. We don't want to repeat the mistakes of the Tories that saddled themselves with the ridiculous policies on the preposterous inheritance tax announced in the autumn of 2007 just as the economic crisis started to bite."Peter HainLabourPatrick Wintourguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
England sees again how fragile optimism can be on and off the field We have Harold Wilson to blame for the search for connections between the World Cup and the fortunes of the nation. timesonline.co.uk |