The ‘democracy review‘ instigated by Jeremy Corbyn before the party’s conference last month is expected to last a year and will report back to Corbyn himself and party chair Ian Lavery.
But a review of other aspects of Labour Party organisation is already well underway – and a major change is reverberating among Westminster-based ‘PADs’ – Political Advisers – as a result of a memo sent by Andrew Fisher and Simon Jackson to Labour’s PADs:
As part of an ongoing review across the whole organisation, we are writing to update you on changes to your line management.
From Wednesday 1 November, Political Advisers’ (PADs) line management will pass from Simon Jackson (Director of Policy and Research based in Southside [Labour HQ in Victoria] to Andrew Fisher (Executive Director of Policy) based in the Leader’s Office, on the parliamentary estate.
This means that line management support is based on the same site as you, in Parliament. Day-to-day management on policy issues will be through the relevant Head of Policy in the Leader’s Office, as follows:
• Jennifer Larbie – Head of International Policy
• Mary Robertson – Head of Economic Policy
• Mark Simpson- Head of Brexit and Devolved Nations
• Lachlan Stuart – Head of Domestic Policy
This means that PADs will be taking their political and policy line from close colleagues of the leader under the oversight of Andrew Fisher, the man responsible in large part for the party’s hugely successful General Election manifesto – and not from the still largely right-dominated Southside HQ.
A move that will be widely welcomed by the membership. And an important step into creating a Labour HQ that will support Labour’s and Corbyn’s vision instead of hindering it?
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What a result ! Anyone with an ounce of nous knows what an extraordinary and brilliant change this is ❤️🌹
Very welcome. The sooner these right wingers are neutralised the better.
Agreed root and branch, keep going Jezza
‘Neutralised’??
Careful, now… 😛
Great news!!! But we also need full oversite of Labour societies and improving of democratic processes to avoid the recent Progress ‘fixing’ of Irish society AGM elections this week, where delegates were locked out, ignored or told the event was cancelled ( a lie). We don’t need to wait for a report to stop this kind of gerrymandering happening now… people are so angry with this and with those responsible.
But will it change any thing in the local branches,like in my city (Southampton), Labour section is controlled by the right wing Blairites and Kinnoch Thatcherism. as been since 80’s-90’s, The only reason why Labour gets voted in here is to keep the Tory’s out off office. Labour here like the Tory’s have sold the city assets off cheap to the private sector, they have now started in selling off whole estates losing high number of council homes, regardless of the vote the city had over 15 years ago about letting the private sector have the council estates. which was a massive no, the council had gone against the people will.
Changes ar happening right across Left Labour from the NEC, CAC, Conference CLP’s and even big swings at by-elections only yesterday we had the good news from Birmingham Council.
Sit tight as the change is happening but it cannot all be done in a day, even in Portsmouth South we have a Labour MP after it being Tory for many years
We will be losing what is left of the water front soon to the private sector,people want the Royal Pier rebuilt but the private sector wants a super casino and hotel built. we lost loads over the years and only the swimming pool been replace, and that only happen because a Councillor like to swim. What we need in Southampton is the TUSC in council power, but people will not vote for them in fear of letting the Tory’s back in power.
We in our constituency organised ourselves and replaced the dead wood Blairites, It is important in the south west to call a meeting of Momentum members in your area, you might even be surprised how many yo have and makes sure they understand what is going on, making sure you have people prepared to replace those blockers.
We set up Momentum first so that meetings could be properly organised, noting we also had to contend with Blairites turning up pretending to support Jeremy Corbyn.
We now have in place 1 Momentum group per constituency within our county, most all verified and acting in unison to inform each other of what is happening on the ground.
We meet on a regular basis to promote activities across the county so that on as many issues as possible we are all singing off the same hymn sheet.
It does take time to set up, but the dividends are enormous, amazingly the age range span is quite universal and still growing in numbers.
There is this to, Labour should have that meeting with the Socialist Party and TUSC, in joining forces and becoming one. Also allowing the TUSC to stand for section for Elections.
Since Margaret Thatcher and through Tony Blair, less and less the ideological system of democracy has been disappearing but tendency of manipulation of the system were widely exploited. Corbyn’s slogan ‘get democracy back’ is one of the greatest issue that many people are inspired. Hoping the change from the dictatorial governing to the democracy challenge will be visible in society in near future that would unite people.
Let’s have an administration that supports our manifesto, not one that acts to hinder the party and act as the first line of defence for the Tories!
The Southside and national party ‘staff’ are the inevitable and contemptible product of decades of Kinnockian / Blairite grooming and indoctrination.
The whole rotten pantomime should be bulldozed into the sea.
Cue right-wing shyster attempt to frame this as a labour relations dispute in 3…2…1…