Horsham Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate, Andrew Skudder, wrote about his experiences at the party's annual conference in this letter to the West Sussex County Times, which was printed today.As Francis Maude, Henry Smith and the Lib Dems have all used the regular columns provided for them in this paper to describe their respective party conferences I thought I might take the liberty of supplying some balance and relating my experience of the Labour conference in Sunny Brighton.
As a prospective parliamentary candidate I was there merely in an ex-officio capacity, but Horsham Labour Party sent an official delegate to the conference, our Chair also visited, as did our local member of the National Policy Forum and a couple of our student members, so Horsham was well-represented there.
Horsham Constituency, along with several other constituencies, proposed a contemporary motion that gained the highest vote amongst delegates, was the only constituency contemporary motion accepted, and was passed overwhelmingly. It asked the government to compel local authorities to build council houses as a matter of urgency and help finance them. This resulted in an extra £181m funding being announced for council house building.
Our delegate also voted in favour of emergency motions in support of resolving the Royal Mail pension fund deficit so that the Royal Mail can continue to thrive as a public body, of keeping the important East Coast Mainline service in public ownership, and to support the imprisoned Tamils by putting pressure on the Sri Lankan government.
I was there for all five days, sampling some of the many fringe meetings, and most of the main debates, catching up with old friends and making new ones.
Other parties would like you to think we spent five days crying into our beer, but on the contrary we were greatly cheered not just by reminders of just how many things have improved in the last twelve years, but by the announcements of future plans that would only come from a Labour government.
I was particularly pleased with the plans to hold a referendum on Alternative Voting - a small step towards electoral reform - and the pledge to finally make the House of Lords a 100% elected body, as well as the scheme to make it possible for constituencies to recall their MP and trigger a by-election.
One of the more popular announcements was the creation of a national care service, along with the scrapping of means testing for Alzheimer's patients and other severe cases and the promise to have the target of 0.7% of GDP for overseas aid to be made a firm commitment enshrined in law.
Along the way we welcomed plans for major improvements in cycling provision, including cycle hubs at main stations, extending the popular and successful scrappage scheme, and also welcomed the Spanish and Norwegian Prime Ministers who addressed the hall. The icing on the cake was the promise to continue and increase the minimum wage, child benefits and child tax credits, reminding us (as if we needed it) why we joined this party in the first place.
Another timely reminder was the good service we had from staff in the hotels and restaurants: perhaps a result of the 'Fair Tips' policy which came into force on the Thursday, something my own union has long been campaigning for.
Andrew Skudder
Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Horsham