The Labour Party are boasting about their, or is our  ‘Open Day’. They have invited 2000 ‘ordinary members’ to have their say at an ‘open’ session during the Labour Party Conference. This should be good, but they’ve done it before, and it wasn’t.

It was called the big conversation and it wasn’t! Conversations happen between two sides, where both sides have a chance to speak, and both sides listen. Cynically I’d say that,  a meeting of this nature is about control of the microphones.

Conference and its fringe might get me to cough up the £200+ that it’d cost to travel to Liverpool, not to mention any overnight accommodation that I’d need, but this open day isn’t enough to make me do it. I know many people that live up that way who are committed to the Labour Party, I hope I am wrong and that you can get there and make a difference.

Personally, I think its an insult to conference, and an excuse to ignore the elected and mandated delegates. I voted for a delegate to represent me, you can listen to them. I would have preferred that the effort in running a national open day, had been spent in getting the unrepresented Constituency Labour Parties to conference. Mind you, my Union has also done very little to attempt to find out what I think, so even Conference will struggle to represent me, but it’ll do a better job than a bunch of self selected, if keen individuals with the will to pay the travel bill. Let’s hope the new leadership’s willingness to listen makes it worthwhile, and lets me abandon the cynicism.

I should be listened to because I am a member not because I can get to Liverpool.

However, at least they’re not charging for entry, which is a big deal; visitors tickets to confernce need to be bought.

About Labour’s Conference Members Open Day
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