January Discussion Meeting

        DRONFIELD LABOUR PARTY DISCUSSION MEETING


TOPIC:               IS LABOUR GOING ANYWHERE ?
                                              IN SEARCH OF AN IDENTITY

SPEAKER:        KEN CURRAN

TIME:                8pm to 9.15pm

DATE:                SUNDAY, 12th JANUARY 2014

VENUE:             CONTACT CLUB, SNAPE HILL LANE,
                            DRONFIELD.

 

Ken is Chair of the Sheffield Branch of the Co-operative Party and Chair of the Manor and Castle Development Trust. He has a wide area of experience inside the Labour Movement and was a full-time Regional Trade Union Official for the  National Union of Public Employees (NUPE), who amalgamated with other major public services trade unions to found UNISON. He served as a Sheffield City Councillor. Earlier he was active in the North East as a young miner. He is a regular attender at our discussion meetings and if you click into the label at the close marked "Ken Curran", you will find the thread to twelve of his most recent contributions to this blog. A book he recommends as being of relevance to his talk, is "Ill Fares The Land" by Tony Judt. 25 quotations from this book can be found here - http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/10861819-ill-fares-the-land    See Ken's reference to Tony Judt's book here

Sign Up

I just signed the petition "Parliament: Debate UK hunger and rise in foodbank use #jackspetition" on Change.org. It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link to click onto :
http://www.change.org/petitions/parliament-debate-uk-hunger-and-rise-in-foodbank-use-jackspetition?share_id=FcMJfAXkWi&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition Thanks, Harry Barnes.

Iraqi Trade Unions Need Our Support

Over the years Eric Lee of Labour Start has circulated many important appeals on behalf of Trade Unionists who are struggling throughout the world. His appeals on behalf of the Iraqi Trade Union Movement have always been especially telling for me. I once had the privilege of chairing meetings in the Commons which was addressed by the late Hadi Saleh, whose name appears on the front of the TUC publication which is mentioned in Eric's latest letter which is reproduce below. Hadi Saleh was as fine a person as anyone I have met in my seven decades of interests in the wider Labour Movement. He was murdered for his beliefs and his fine actions. Unfortunately, he isn't the only Iraqi Trade Union leader whom I have met who suffered such a fate. Please support Eric's crucial appeal for today's Iraqi Trade Unionists.

 Hadi Saleh

In more than ten years since the fall of the Saddam regime, the Iraqi people have been disappointed, to say the least, with the promises of democracy, peace and prosperity. 

The country’s trade unions, reborn as independent organizations after the American-led invasion, continue to suffer under the repressive laws passed by the Saddam dictatorship.

That's incredible, but true.  Saddam's laws banning most union activity remain in force.

The IndustriALL Global Union and the International Trade Union Confederation have launched an online campaign demanding change — please take a moment to lend your support at -

http://labourstart.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=f3995b46c18cb039818f29a32&id=73a006e4cd&e=9e25e00cc2

It’s not all bad news, though.  Oil union leader Hassan Juma’a has just had charges against him thrown out of court earlier this month.  Read one account of this important victory here.

To learn more about the Iraqi labour movement, there’s no better place to start than the wonderful book “Hadi Never Died: Hadi Saleh and the Iraqi Trade Unions” which was published by the British Trades Union Congress.

This beautifully illustrated paperback is still available from Labour Start for just £10.00 (including postage to anywhere in the world).  Order your copy today - click here.

And finally, to stay on top of all the latest labour news from Iraq, make sure to bookmark our Iraqi labour news page.

Thanks very much.


Eric Lee

Discussion Meeting 8th December

Bob Heath

                              DRONFIELD LABOUR PARTY DISCUSSION MEETING


TOPIC:            NEWS FROM NOWHERE :
                                            IS LABOUR GOING ANYWHERE ?

SPEAKER:      BOB HEATH

TIME:               8pm to 9.15pm

DATE:              SUNDAY, 8th DECEMBER 2013

VENUE:           CONTACT CLUB, SNAPE HILL LANE, DRONFIELD

Bob is a regular attender at our discussion meetings and his term "blather" is used to describe this discussion group's blog. He has had wide experiences in the Labour Party as Chair of the Constituency, Parliamentary Agent, Councillor and activist. He started work as a Derbyshire Miner and attended Derbyshire Miners' Day Release Classes. After a period as an adult student, he became a tutor at Sheffield University and Director of Studies for the Derbyshire Miner's Classes which he had at one time attended.

Can The Left Think Differently?

Ken Curran who regularly attends our discussion meetings and contributes to this blog, has the current  lead article on the ILP web-site. The ILP provide the following description of its contents.
   
The humanitarian impact of the economic crisis puts Europe’s social and economic stability at risk, says KEN CURRAN. A new report from the Red Cross Economic Review on the economic crisis in Europe makes frightening reading. Entitled "Think Differently: humanitarian impacts of the economic crisis in Europe", it shows in 68 pages that the very stability of social and economic activity across Europe is at great risk. On the continent of Europe around 120 million people are living in poverty. The gap between the rich and poor is polarising.

 

Ken's important article can be found here.

NHS On The Verge Of Extinction

See today's article by Kailash Chand in today's "Tribune" here
Then act in conformity with Nye Bevan's message below.
 

Discussion Meeting 10th November

Nigel Barker



                    DRONFIELD LABOUR PARTY DISCUSSION MEETING


TOPIC                  REPORT BACK ON THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE

SPEAKER            NIGEL BARKER

TIME                    8pm to 9.15pm

DATE                   SUNDAY, 10th NOVEMBER 2013

VENUE                CONTACT CLUB, SNAPE HILL LANE, DRONFIELD 


Nigel attended the recent Annual Conference of the Labour Party as a delegate from the North East Derbyshire Constituency Labour Party. He will give a report on its activities. He is a member of the North East Derbyshire District Council and details about him appear here on their web-site. He is also Chair of the North Wingfield Parish Council, whose web-site can be found here .          

Parliamentary Arithmetic

How many MPs failed to either turn up or otherwise not to enter the division lobby yesterday in the vote that led to the defeat of the Government?

The vote was 285 to 272,  giving a total of 557 votes. To these, eight others need to be taken into account. There are four in the Speaker's team, who don't by convention vote. Then each side puts in two tellers, who count the votes of other MPs' as they come out of the division lobbies. The figure then goes up to 565, except that a Conservative and a Liberal entered both lobbies as a means of exercising positive abstentions. The calculation then goes back down to 563.  With a total of 650 MPs this leaves 87 to be accounted for. Three of these were Government Ministers. Ken Clarke missed the vote as he was away for "family reasons". Then Justine Greening (Secretary of State for International Development) and Mark Simmonds (Parliamentary Under Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) were together in a meeting in the parliament building, but did not hear the division bells. On the other hand they should have been aware that votes from 10 pm are a standard procedure on major issues when the Commons has commenced at 2.30 pm. That leaves us now with 84 other MPs to be accounted for. (Update 23.35 hours, 30 August : The Daily Telegraph now claim that in "total, including Liberal Democrats and a Downing Street adviser, 10 members of the Government are recorded as not having voted" -  numbers of whom claim to have been excused the whip and some who face the sack.) 

84 missing MPs is almost 13% of the total. It is a lot to be missing for a crucial vote. There are a number of possible explanations for absences. First, some could have decided to abstain - either being in the Commons at the time of the vote or being elsewhere. Some could have been "paired", where a Government and an Opposition MP have an agreement sanctioned by the whips not to vote on various items, so their votes will normally cancel each other out. It normally allows MPs to be away from parliament. But with 49 Government supporters coming to defying their whips, it is odd for people to be excused whipping arrangements - unless the whips felt that the people concerned were unreliable and might rebel, or they just had no idea what was going to happen. August is also a bad time for a Government to recall parliament, unless their whips are pro-active. Given the parliamentary time-table and constituency commitments it is the best time in the year for MPs to take a holiday break. With children still on school holidays, some MPs could be overseas with their families. What efforts did their whips make to contact them and pressurize them to turn up? Given the result, the Government whips failed to deliver in a startling fashion. Had they warned Cameron of the dangers of defeat? If not why not? Did he ignore such warnings? After the defeat of the Government. will the opposition now put forward a motion of no-confidence in the Government? If this was lost it would trigger either the appointment of a new Prime Minister or a General Election.

Look for changes in the Government team. There are no less then 17 of them in the whips office. They are headed by Sir George Young, who is far too kind a man for such a job. I bet they return to having a Rottweiler.

Also see here about the MP whose move ten years ago paved the way for yesterday's vote.

Don't Destroy A Good Idea

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) are proposing that first time voting should be made compulsory, yet other voting should remain voluntary. See here.

Whatever, the rights and wrongs are for compulsory voting: the IPPR are wrong to propose having a two-tier voting system, with voting being compulsory for some and not for others. All voters should be given the same status.

Labour is supposed to be interested in the IPPR Report, with a view to attaching the notion to their proposal for Votes for 16s. This would make things even worse. How can we treat 16 year olds as adults and give them the vote, then say because they are not really adults they will be forced into using their first vote? Talk about crossed messages.

Let us have votes at 16, with electoral registration taking place via schools for 15 year olds in readiness for them attaining the vote. Then run courses for the 15 year olds at school about voting and democracy.

Schools, Colleges and Universities can then be used as a means of updating registers. For those who have left educational institutions, a pro-active re-registration system can be put in place. This would track and catch up with people as they move, in order to get them to re-register. Advertising could also be used to alert people to the need to re-register. If Wonga can use the media to sell their dangerous services, then the State can do it for a worthy purpose. If the State adopted relevant legislation, they could oblige the media to run their adverts for free. Electoral Returning Officers could also be funded to arrange for door to door canvassing to encourage re-registration. All registration should be compulsory, with the numbers fined starting to match up to the numbers of non-registrations. 

But we should treat everyone in the same way.  Not forced voting for some, but it not mattering for others.

My own preference is for all voting to be voluntary. It is up to political parties, individual candidates, political activists and the media to start interesting people in politics and to show that it can have real meaning to people's lives.  As the Labour Party are now advocating votes at 16, they have a special responsibility on this matter.

A universal franchise is only part of the democratic process. But it is an essential element.

Labour and Votes at 16

 

It is being reported in the media that Labour has come out in support of votes at 16.

There is now a key opportunity to provide important add-ons to the policy, which will (a) ensure full electoral registration for those acquiring the vote, (b) encourage a good turnout from the newly enfranchised and (c) will enable these 16 and 17 year olds names to be retained on the electoral registers as they grow older.

Providing voting rights from 16 can be used as an essential step to tackling the serious problem of voter under-registration. The Electoral Commission reported that at least 6 million people are missing from electoral registers. Yet we also see that the under-registration figure is likely to be larger than this, as census details have revealed 1.57 million people in England and Wales have second addresses and this will entitle many of them to double registration. If, say, 1 million throughout the UK have done this, that means that under-registration is actually over the 7 million mark. There are even indications recently by the Electoral Commission that 2 million more may need to be added to these under-registration figures.

With votes at 16, the names of "attainers" would be included on registers when they were 15, showing the dates of their coming birthdays and their then entitlement to vote. If registration for these first-time voters took place via their schools, an initial registration of almost 100% could be achieved. A proactive registration system could then be put in place to ensure that most of those who initially registered did not slip through the net later in life.

As under-registration is high among the 18-25 age group, the poor, the rootless and ethnic minorities; this also leads to a situation where the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies are seriously distorted. A system of initial registration via schools, with an associated and imaginative educational programme, could start to correct this imbalance and develop a commitment amongst young people to use and improve the democratic process. With almost universal registrations being achieved for 16 year olds via their schools, electoral registration officers could also be given the authority and resources to trace the addresses of the people concerned as they grow older and have often moved their homes. This would have an early impact by ensuring that most of those newly enfranchised would be on the registers as they moved into the under-represented 18-25 age range.  Many of the newly enfranchised 16 year olds will also, of course, already fit (or come to fit) into the categories of other groups who currently suffer from under-registration.

Provision for pro-active electoral registration methods (including relevant education programmes in schools for 15 year olds about the democratic process) can hopefully be added to Labour's welcome commitment.

Alice : Who Art Thou?

A prison warden, Hettie Wheeldon, Winnie Mason, and Alice Wheeldon in January 1917 
 



Alice Ann Wheeldon (1866 – 1919) was a member of the Independent Labour Party, a  pacifist and a campaigner against our involvement in the First World War. She was arrested in 1917 along with her family and imprisoned. Evidence given in the case against them was fabricated by a government which was eager to disgrace the antiwar movement. She was falsely convicted of conspiring to kill the Prime Minister, Lloyd George.  See here for more details.

Derby People's History A FESTIVAL FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE 1913 -2013 Alice Wheeldon: a daughter of Derby to be proud of Derby Guildhall Saturday 14th Sept : 10.30 – 22.30 This year Derby has honoured Alice Wheeldon with a Blue Plaque; recognising that an injustice was done to her family. Our day will look at the conditions before and during and before the WW1, with talks, music, performance, an Art Exhibition and discuss peace and justice at a time of war. It will be lively and enjoyable, so book your place now and tell your friends. We have the fabulous Peggy Seeger in the evening (£12.00 and £10.00), Robb Johnson & Rosa’s Lovely Daughters, Workshops and Art (£1.00 day ticket). Tickets from Derby Live Website. Contact us: derbypeoplesh@yahoo.co.uk Website: www.derbypeopleshistory.co.uk/

Next Discussion Meeting - 8th September

                    DRONFIELD LABOUR PARTY DISCUSSION MEETING


TOPIC:            GIVING PEOPLE HOPE IN A TIME OF AUSTERITY

SPEAKER:      ANNE WESTERN

TIME:              8pm to 9.15pm

DATE:             SUNDAY, 8th SEPTEMBER, 2013

VENUE:          CONTACT CLUB, SNAPE HILL LANE, DRONFIELD.

Anne (photo above) is the Labour Leader of the Derbyshire County Council
and County Councillor for Clowne and Barlborough. 

What Are Your Responses To Ken?

Below are two related items from Ken Curran who is a regular at our Discussion Meetings. Responses are welcome in our comment box.

(1) Is Labour in Terminal Decline?

The signs are certainly not good across Europe. The Democratic Left are in trouble. All the various opinion polls tell a similar story. Democratic Socialist Parties across Europe are failing to present alternative policies to the electorate which would give the electorate confidence in a socialist alternative. The reason being that our parties are not opposing free market and finance capitalism. We occupy the same middle ground as those we are supposed to oppose.

To the average voter. our parties are almost indistinguishable. None of Europe's Democratic Socialist Parties present an alternative to free market and finance capitalism. While many of us know the present system is completely unsustainable, our leaders fail to admit the inescapable reality. There may be some excuse for many who fail to quite understand what is happening to our world in both economic and environmental terms. There is no excuse for those amongst us who do have an understanding. The silence on part of many of our political class is nothing short of criminal negligence. Since August 2008 our economies have been in chaos. Five years on and we are still no further forward. None of Europe's so-called Socialist Leaders have, to the best of my knowledge made statements presenting socialist alternatives which will give voters confidence to support our Socialist Parties. All across Europe, the political establishment appears to suffer from mental paralysis. They appear to live in fear of saying anything in case they frighten the very monster which is currently devouring Europe - namely Finance Capitalism.

During the late 19th Century and the 20th Century, Democratic Socialism offered hope to the poor and the dispossessed. Today we have no vision. The only hope we offer are food parcels and sympathy. Ed Miliband's "One Nation" Labour statement which was enclosed to Labour Party Members along with a ballot paper for selecting Labour Euro Candidates is about as exciting as a wet Sunday in Doncaster. In spite of all the dire information about climate change, future famines, floods and people losing their homes - none of these are mentioned. We genuinely deserve better leadership than this. We are just being fed the same kind of trash which we have heard many times before. It is rather wearing that the quality of the thinking is as poor as the so-called solutions. If Democratic Socialism can produce nothing better than "One Nation Labour", then Europeans should fear for the future.

(2) Building a Socialist Vision for Europe.

A Guardian leader column back in 25 May about Europe's centre-left was headed "A Programme Without Frontiers". It dealt with the question of the decline in Europe's electoral support for all of the centre-left parties in Europe. The article raises the question which a number of us in the Yorkshire Co-operative Party have pursued for some time. It asks whether Europe's Centre-Left Parties would have more credibility if they could offer a European-wide centre-left programme. In the light of the experience since the collapse of the Banks and the Market in 2008 one would have thought that Europe's Socialist Leaders would have been trying to find solutions to the present crisis which were more akin to their political ethics.

Up to the present time there has not been any real sign of seeking a collective approach based upon socialist ethics. The Democratic Left are failing to create a political vision for Europe which the electorate of all of Europe would be able to identify as being different from the Centre Right. This is just like when the Democratic Left failed to create the great European Vision sort by Keir Hardie before the First World War and then failed again in the 1920s and 1930s with the rise of Fascism and the Second World War. The political inertia in Europe should concern us all. We have to learn that it is just that form of indecisiveness which provided Hitler with the circumstances which led to the Second World War.  Within the Democratic Left there is no dialogue with our comrades in Europe. When our leaders meet, regrettably they are not discussing alternative solutions where our political ethos can be distinguished from the politicians of the Centre Right. There is a distinct lack of serious discussion amongst the Parties of the Democratic Left in Europe to create a comprehensive debate which is inclusive and gives individual members the opportunity to help to build a socialist vision of Europe. Our leaders are so committed to finding quick and easy solutions to the problems of climate change and the economy that, by and large, they apply sticking plaster to wounds that actually require major surgery. They paper over the cracks in the wallpaper of capitalism, leaving the problems, whilst trying to secure the political power they seek by pragmatism.  By and large, Europe's Democratic Left have neither a Map nor Compass in order to plot a political course.

We need to make our own links with our sister parties in Europe and begin the process of creating a structure which could lead towards forming an alternative structure which could lead forward towards creating an alternative Democratic Socialist vision of Europe. We need to act quickly as events may overtake us, leaving the Democratic Left without hope or influence in the future.   

Ken Curran, Chair Sheffield Branch of the Yorkshire Co-operative Party. Democratic School or Socialism.         

NHS : MORE PRIVATISATION

EXTRACT FROM THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL

"A forthcoming trade treaty between Europe and the United States could have far-reaching implications for the NHS. Some observers believe the Health and Social Care Act was designed with this deal in mind. Will it add a new dimension to competition in the health service? Peter Davies reports.

The European Union and the United States are about to agree terms for negotiating a free trade treaty. Prime minister David Cameron has made reaching agreement a priority for the meeting of the G8 countries on 17-18 June, which he is chairing. It is hoped the treaty will be signed by the end of 2014. The European Commission says it will be “the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated,”1 adding £73bn (€85bn; $110bn) a year to the EU’s economy.

Officially titled the transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP), this is the latest in a series of agreements to “liberalise” trade between wealthy nations. The EU has been negotiating a similar deal with Canada, the comprehensive economic and trade agreement (CETA), since 2009. These agreements focus on “harmonising” regulation and opening up markets: often this involves privatising public services. Though governments negotiate the agreements, they are designed to benefit large transnational corporations and protect foreign investors.

Cameron said of the TTIP talks: “Too often in trade, the voices defending special interests shout loudest. But it makes no sense to exclude vital parts of the economy. Everything is on the table with no exception. ”.

Some health policy analysts have deduced that the NHS will be one of the markets the government opens to US interest. Since the Health and Social Care Act 2012 it has been primed to make ever more use of competition, in England at least. The result could be many more NHS services contracted out to private providers...."

FOR SOURCE  SEE HERE.

The ILP At Dronfield

ILP@120: Lessons from History

Jan 14th, 2013 | By willb | Category: Articles, Frontpage, News
 

WILL BROWN reports from the Dronfield Labour Discussion Group where more than 30 activists braved a wintery night to mark the ILP’s 120th birthday on Sunday 13 January.
 
Fuelled by a special surprise birthday cake made by Christine and Rosie Smith (pictured left), the audience heard the ILP NAC’s Barry Winter assess the contemporary lessons to be learned from the ILP’s history.

Barry began by reminding the audience just what a huge task the founders of the ILP faced. Hostility from the trade unions, from the Liberals and from much of the working class, meant that founding a party for labour – ‘a party that will’ – was a project that had to be argued for and fought for.

Even the later creation of the Labour Party necessitated compromises that many were unhappy with as the ILP’s commitment to socialism was tempered by the reformism and electoral priorities of others. Looking to achieve what is best under the constraints of the day, while never giving up on the longer-term aims we seek to achieve, has often been a hallmark of the ILP’s politics, Barry noted.

Looking to the present day, Barry focused on the interconnections between the necessary role of social democratic electoral parties, left groups like the ILP, and wider movements for change. While parties inevitably become focussed on short-term manoeuvring between tight electoral constraints, social movements can be more open and creative, he said. Although often short-lived, at their best movements create political space that social democratic parties can occupy.

In its history the ILP has played both roles, creating space and changing political landscapes while also engaging in electoral politics. Finding new ways for dialogue and cooperation between these two areas of political activity remains one of the most important challenges we face.
—-
Many thanks to Christine and Rosie Smith for the cake and the photo.

More articles on the ILP’s 120th anniversary can be found here.

More on the ILP’s history is here.
Buy ILP 120th anniversary calendars here.

Tags: 120th anniversary, ILP history, The ILP

The ILP Reaches 120 at Dronfield

The ILP Reaches 120

This year marks the 120th anniversary of the ILP, a milestone in British political history which the current ILP aims to mark and celebrate over the next 12 months in a number of ways. Starting with our own Discussion Meeting as shown in our right-hand column.

The Independent Labour Party was founded on 13 January 1893 when some 120 delegates gathered at the Labour Institute in Bradford to create a national political party to represent working class people and strive towards a socialist society.


As well as some known figures, such as the chair, Keir Hardie – already an Independent Labour MP – most of the delegates were young, working class men and women, mainly from the industrial north of England and Scotland, who had been active in local ILPs, trade unions and trades councils.

They were pioneers, idealists in some ways, who knew they lived in an environment hostile to socialist ideas, yet believed it was possible to change people’s outlooks, to alter the political culture, and to create a fairer, more equal, more democratic world.

The organisation they created has remained in continuous existence ever since, surviving numerous ups and downs in political fortune, and living through many changed and challenging circumstances over the last 12 decades.

Now known as Independent Labour Publications. the ILP has a(slightly) different name, and it operates in vastly transformed political circumstances, yet in many ways the ILP today continues to embody the spirit and purpose of its founders.

Like them, it advocates an ‘ethical’ socialism, one based on essential humanitarian concerns. Like them, it has stated in Our Politics in 2011, “we hold fast to the ethics and principles relating to care and compassion, fellowship and fraternity, mutuality and cooperation, social, political and economic equity, and democracy”.

These have been the foundation of the ILP's politics for 120 years.

Throughout 2013, it aims to celebrate the birth and history of the ILP, to remember the people who made it and gave their lives to it, and to mark the survival of those political ideas by discussing their relevance and importance today.

Here are some of the events and activities the ILP hope to be involved in, either as authors and organisers, or as participants. They hope that you will be involved too.


13 January: The 120th anniversary of the founding conference of the ILP

From 13 January: Online profiles of ILPers
The start of a series of profiles of figures from ILP history, some well known, others unheralded, written by academics, historians, activists and politicians. The series will begin with Fred Jowett, profiled by Ian Bullock, and continue on the ILP website throughout the year.
13 January: Lessons of ILP history
Barry Winter, former ILP general secretary and author of The ILP: Past & Present, speaking to Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group on what today’s Labour movement can learn from ILP history. More details here.

2 March: ‘George Orwell: Homage to Catalonia 75 Years On’
An International Brigades Memorial Trust conference at Manchester Conference Centre focusing on George Orwell’s account of the Spanish Civil war and the contribution of the ILP volunteers. The ILP will have a stall. More details here.
May: The ILP School
The ILP’s annual conference event will focus on its 120th anniversary with the theme of ‘Ethical Socialism: Past and Present’. Details of date, time, length and venue are still to be confirmed.
May: Book launch – The ILP: Past & Present
Launch of a brand new edition of Barry Winter’s always popular pamphlet on the history of the ILP. Last updated 20 years ago on the ILP’s centenary, this is a newly re-written and re-published version. More details to come.
(Note: the 1993 version of The ILP: Past & Present can be read here.)
September: The ILP at Labour Party conference
Look out for ILP fringe meetings, including one on ethical socialism with MP Jon Cruddas, the man leading Labour’s policy review. Dates and details to be announced.
Also, keep your eyes open for events at Clarion House in Nelson (probably in the summer), and at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford, hopefully in the autumn.
And don’t forget the limited edition 2013 ILP Wall Calendars, especially published to mark the ILP’s 120th anniversary, and illustrated by political cartoons from the 1890s and 1920s. Some still available. Order yours here.

Hat Tip - Matthew Brown