labour rural

Interesting article this and a number of the policies featured here have rural implications – what overall would a new Labour Government do about rural I wonder…

Ed Milliband is facing a weekend of battles behind closed doors to persuade Labourparty activists to back his manifesto, which faces grassroots challenges over railway re-nationalisation, welfare caps and labour regulation.

The Labour leader is holding meetings with senior party figures before the three-day Labour national policy forum begins on Friday in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The gathering will hammer out the party’s policy programme from which the 2015 general election manifesto will be drawn.

The 198-member policy forum is probably the maximum point of political leverage the unions hold over the party leadership before the election.

Miliband is hoping the forum will be seen as a moment when the party accepts his messages that the need to cut the deficit requires a new approach based on big reforms to markets and to the public sector, rather than big spending.

The forum is made up of regional constituency delegates, union members, parliamentarians and other affiliates. Much of the weekend will be spent trying to build a consensus around already published policy papers, rather than holding votes. Delegates are entitled to submit amendments and union delegates are promising to fight tooth and nail for an anti-austerity agenda.

Much of the tension in the buildup to the Milton Keynes meeting has focused on Labour plans to allow a public sector rail operator to bid for rail franchises when they become available.