Campaign news

Contemporary motions for Labour Conference

26th August 2013

The LRC have collated the following contemporary motions for the Labour Party Conference at the end of September.

The submission cut off date is September 12th 2013

Please feel free to utilise these as model motions in your next Branch/CLP meeting and support these at conference

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FRACKING

Conference notes: 

a) Overwhelming local opposition occurs wherever hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) is proposed, north or south.  No Fibs door-to-door survey released 3 August found 85% opposition among residents in Tory stronghold Balcombe. 

b) Reports of 14 August that the Environment Agency had briefed Ministers over a year earlier that drilling near aquifers (which provide over 70% of Sussex water) can contaminate the water supply and should not be permitted; however, a public statement had been re-worded to avoid “too stark a message”.

c) Coalition support for fracking with a “generous new tax regime” and a positive planning regime for new shale gas wells; with, by February 2014, a target of only 1-2 weeks to issue Environment Agency permits, and local planning authorities not having to consider matters including seismic activity, flaring, venting or potential impact on ground water supplies.

Conference agrees that due to their highly adverse environmental impact, unconventional energy sources like shale gas should only be permitted as a last resort, after developing and exploiting clean coal, wind, wave and solar energy sources, including their efficient storage.

Conference calls on the Shadow Cabinet to regularly undertake high profile visits to support anti-fracking protests.

Conference calls on the next Labour government to:

a) give full legislative force to Labour’s March 2012 pre-conditions to the exploration and extraction of shale gas.
b) hold a public enquiry into a UK-wide ban on fracking
c) repeal any tax breaks applied to fracking.
d) offer tax breaks to develop renewable energy sources

(250 words)

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BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS :  DEFEND HARD-PRESSED FARE-PAYERS

Conference notes the 13 August announcement that the July inflation figure was 3.1%  and that average fares,  already the highest in Europe,  will in January 2014 rise by no less than 4.1%.
Conference notes that this hyperinflationary increase holds commuters and other passengers to ransom at a time when their incomes are either barely rising or frozen or even actually declining.  It represents an unacceptable attack on the living standards not just of the poor but also of the ‘’squeezed middle’’ of our society.  Like threats to reduce guards and station-staff,  it is thoroughly consistent with the present government’s twin policies of austerity for the general public and profits for the shareholding few.
Conference notes,  however,  that a better alternative exists.  The publicly-run East Coast Mainline has,  since leaving the private sector in 2009,  already delivered to the Department for Transport over £640 million for reinvestment.
East Coast’s example clearly demonstrates the wisdom of taking Britain’s railways back into public ownership when each private contract expires,  in line with long-standing Labour policy.  This would not require a spending commitment from a future Labour Chancellor.  It would,  on the contrary,  make the money contributed by fare-payers available for holding down fares and investing in service improvements instead of continuing to subsidise the wealth of private shareholders.
Conference therefore now calls on Labour’s leadership to announce without delay that Labour is firmly committed to this policy.  It is economically prudent,  environmentally sustainable and electorally popular.

(249 words)

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NHS NEEDS A LABOUR GOVERNMENT

Conference notes that :
(1) The NHS is not safe in the hands of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats ;
(2) Professor Don Berwick’s Report to the Government published on August 6 makes it clear that NHS staff should not be scapegoated when services are overstretched and that ‘’ good people can fail to meet patients’  needs when their working conditions do not provide them with the conditions for success ‘’  ;
(3) David Cameron’s August 8 announcement of funding for struggling A & E Departments   fails to address the fundamental threats to our NHS posed by increasing privatisation,  relentless Government demands for ‘’ savings ‘’ and continual cuts to nursing numbers ;
(4) The July 31 High Court ruling against Jeremy Hunt’s decision to cut services at   Lewisham Hospital offers nationwide encouragement for defenders of our NHS.
Conference accordingly welcomes Labour’s commitment to repeal the Health and Social Care Act and reaffirms our urgent call for Labour to work with health unions and other NHS supporters to campaign against privatisation,  cuts and closures ;  to liberate the NHS from extortionate PFI charges ;  and to restore the principle of a publicly owned,  publicly provided and publicly accountable NHS funded by progressive taxation and delivering care on the basis of need and not ability to pay.
Conference now calls on Labour’s spokespeople to step up Labour’s public campaigning for these objectives.  It was Labour who fought to create the NHS.  It is now up to Labour to fight to defend it.

(246 words)

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Save the NHS!

Conference notes the 8 August announcement on A&E funding: an attempt to hide cuts and dismantling of the NHS.

Days before, the High Court overturned the closure of Lewisham Hospital, following sustained campaigning involving thousands of residents.

One cause of the South London crisis, as elsewhere, is debts resulting from the obscenely wasteful Private Finance Initiative.

On 1 August it was revealed the NHS paid Clinicenta £53m to end a Treatment Centre contract in Stevenage, after investigations into three deaths. Yet parent company Carillion may receive a £425m PFI contract at the Royal Liverpool.

In line with last year’s unanimously-agreed policy, the party should step up campaigning against cuts, privatisation and fragmentation in the NHS, including takeover of services by private companies, led by scandal-ridden Serco and G4S, or by charities.

We stand for universal provision for need and democratic accountability and control, through a publicly-owned, publicly-run NHS: not an NHS logo covering a profit-driven healthcare market.

We commit to:

Repealing the Health and Social Care Act and associated “competition regulations”.
Reversing other policies that have shifted the NHS towards a market system – including the wasteful “internal market”, the “any qualified provider” rule, widespread outsourcing/subcontracting.
Restoring the ministerial duty to provide a comprehensive service.
Excluding the NHS from international competition frameworks.
Cancelling PFI debts and replacing PFI with direct funding.
Reversing cuts and providing adequate funding to rebuild the NHS.
Making sure any integration with social care is under “NHS principles”: public, universal, funded free through taxation.

[250 words including title]