Nothing new there then. But this is a real battle worth fighting. It’s all very internally complicated but basically comes down to whether or not grassroots members are allowed to elect directly their own members onto the National Policy Forum, the body which decides policy. Currently the 55 members are “elected” at conference where the party officials have every opportunity get at the delegates and tell them how to vote.
Under Gordon Brown’s instructions Number 10 apparatchiks have been pulling out all the stops to head off what some members believe could be the biggest revolution in internal democracy since, almost 30 years ago, members won a say in choosing the leader. If the 55 constituency members were to be directly elected policies such as scrapping Trident would have a better chance of being adopted as the official line.
Critically the unions have backed the one-member-one-vote plan but in a last ditch tactic the leadership is trying to head off debate on Wednesday with a statement from the ruling national executive, deferring any discussion till next year, ie shelving it for good.
An emergency meeting of the NEC has been scheduled for 7.30 in the morning on Wednesday so more later.
