25/09/2013 Today at Conference

Good evening, welcome to the last day of the Labour Party Conference

in Brighton. The conference is over and the members are heading home

with what they think our policies they can sell on the doorstep.

Harriet Harman finished the week off in traditional fashion with a couple

Harriet Harman finished the week off of bad jokes. Ed Miliband face

delegates in a question and answer session. Doreen Lawrence, received a

standing ovation as a guest speaker. And full speed ahead or reverse

gear? What is Labour's position on HS2?

After Ed Miliband's speech yesterday, in which he set out his

ambitious plans to freeze energy prices, today he faced is party

members in a question and answer session. Not all the questions were

hostile. We need the Burnham plan for health and social care. I am

behind his idea, which he talked about. I said yesterday, we have got

to integrate mental health, social care and unless we do it we will not

deal with the resource crunch we have in the health service. It is

not just the right thing to do, it is to make us spend the money we

spend on the health service wisely. You have talked about the green

economy and challenging energy prices. What will you do about

challenging where the energy is coming from? What is your opinion on

fracking? What are the environmental policies around the fact we are

missing 2015 targets the moment? On this point of how we meet the energy

needs of the country, we meet them with what is available. Renewable is

important. Nuclear is important. When George Osborne is talking about

fracking as being a panacea, he is misguided. You have to meet concerns

but the notion it will solve the energy problems and you don't have

to go green is nonsense. My stepfather has carers everyday to

get him up and washed. Unison represents many thousands of care

workers. But it has become clear they are struggling with the 15

minute appointments and they are not being allowed any travelling time.

What will Labour do to tackle the crisis of social care? Caring is one

of the most important jobs in our society. But we give it the least

regard in terms of wages, conditions. We have to change that,

and I am determined we do. Will you pledge the government will eliminate

domestic violence, eliminate rape and violence to girls in the UK.

domestic violence, eliminate rape Will your government be a feminist

one? My two boys, when they grow up, I don't want them growing up with

many of the images and portrayals we have of the role of young women and

men in our society. What Yvette Cooper said in our conference about

sex education is a core part. Teaching youngsters about what it

means to be a man and a woman in our society. It is thought to what needs

to be done. In light of the fact LGBT people in Russia are being

treated as second-class citizens, what would a Labour government do to

help LGBT people in Russia and elsewhere? It is one of the most

proudest achievements of this movement in the last three years, we

are the people who have forced equal marriage through the House of

Commons and the House of Lords. But the point you make about the wider

challenge is totally right. The international challenge. Many of us

have been shocked about some of the things happening in Russia around

the law that has been passed. I want to assure you that a battle for the

LGBT writes internationally is a battle I take seriously and I will

take incredibly seriously as Prime Minister. How can we overcome the

politics of divide and rule which has started since your speech by the

Tories. How can we overcome that and make sure the politics of truth

prevails in 2015? The wisdom of the British people is something we

should never under estimate. The wisdom of the British people to

should never under estimate. The understand how high the stakes are

and who will fight for them. We have shown this week who we will fight

for and it is up to all of us over the next 20 months, to go out and

win that fight. We know who we are fighting for, we know how high the

stakes are, let's go out and win that fight. Thank you very much.

Ed Miliband addressing his party. that fight. Thank you very much.

This afternoon, Doreen Lawrence, the mother of the murdered teenager,

Stephen Lawrence came to the stage. She is going to become the new

member of the Labour team in the She is going to become the new

house of lords. She got a standing ovation before her speech and after.

It was late on a Friday back in May that I received a message that Ed

Miliband was trying to get in touch with me. I spent the weekend

wondering what would he want to talk to me about? You can imagine my

brain was working overtime. Monday to me about? You can imagine my

came and I made the call. I was put through to Ed Miliband. Then it

became clear. He wanted to tell me that he had put my name forward for

the house of lords. At first, I thought, " it is amazing". Then the

enormity of it hit me while I was still on the phone. To be honest, I

was lost for words. I know it must sound strange, and don't get me

wrong, I was very flattered, but if anyone knows anything about me, it

would take me time to analyse, way up things before I decide,

especially when it is something as potent as this. Since it was

announced I was to become a peer, I have had a lot of people bowing...

APPLAUSE money from the proceeds of crime,

change the law to make criminals pay more and prevent them from hiding

assets. We will drive down Tory waste. They spent £100 million on

holding November elections, which could have 3000 police on the

streets. £30 million is going on extra CCTV bureaucracy, hundreds of

millions on chaotic police procurement they fail to tackle and

privatised forensics are pushing costs up. We need a long-term vision

of policing for the future. It needs to make savings, but deliver better

public services. That is why we have to make savings, but deliver better

asked Lord Stevens, former Lord Commissioner of the Met to set up a

commission. With experts from across the world to draw up a radical and

positive plan for policing in the 21st century. Raising police

standards, improving diversity in policing, giving neighbourhoods are

stronger say, saving money to keep police officers on the beat, looking

at Police and Crime Commissioner 's and accountability. And delivering

stronger, swifter action when things go wrong. As they did so badly over

Stephen Lawrence and also as they did so badly over Hillsborough. So

families never again have to wait over 20 years for truth and justice.

Yvette Cooper was interviewed by Andrew Neil on the daily politics.

He began by asking her about the low turnout in the elections for police

commissioners and asked if Labour would scrap them? We have asked Lord

Stevens to look at this issue. He is setting out a long-term vision of

policing, looking at issues around accountability but also looking at

how you raise policing standards, stronger checks and balances when

things go wrong, and making sure the stronger checks and balances when

police can cope with the challenges of the 21st century. He is due to

report before Christmas and then we will consider what his conclusions

are. It could advise you it is advisable to scrap the PCC and you

will follow that advice either way? We will consider his conclusions and

have a debate in the Labour Party. What we have said previously is we

oppose the principle of them to start off with because we felt it

was concentrating too much policing power in one person's hands. We are

clear reforms will be needed, but we will await John Stephen's advice and

the expert commission he has gathered which involves people from

all over the globe. Because we believe in public services, we need

a reform plan for the future, especially at the time when there is

a reform plan for the future, less resources around. When the

coalition started cutting the police service, you were planning to cut it

as well, but they have cut it by more. You said policing in Britain

faced a perfect storm. We are halfway through a coalition

government, crime is at its lowest level for many years, lower than

under Labour. Cuts have not had an effect, have they? That is not what

victims think. We have 30,000 fewer crimes being solved since the

election. We have got fewer cases being referred to prosecution for

domestic violence or rape. In fact, they have dropped by a third, the

number of rape cases being referred to the prosecution, even though in

fact the number of cases reported to the police has gone up. We can seek

the evidence of victims being let down, more criminals and abusers

getting away with it. It is a result down, more criminals and abusers

of there being fewer police officers and others being stretched. Do you

support the fire brigade strike? We want negotiations to continue, we

think it is the right approach. It is a difficult situation. If the

police cannot strike, should fireman also recovered by no strike

legislation? They have had a long-standing arrangement and we are

not proposing to change that. long-standing arrangement and we are

This week, Ed Balls came to this podium and he questioned Labour's

support for the High Speed Rail link. He said it might not be a good

idea to spend £50 billion on the project. Alan Fleming went out with

his balls to show whether it should be full steam ahead.

The message from Labour this week on HS2 has been mixed. What will

delegates think about it? Do they want to construct it or cancel?

Construct. The southern end of the West Coast Main Line is full. I

don't think it is the right thing. I think we need massive investment in

railways but not this railway. The issue for me is it part of a wider

transport strategy or a glamour project just to build between London

and Manchester? To bring it to Swansea, that should be my dream. I

will vote to go with HS2. In places like China they have amazing

networks. If we don't improve ours, we would be left behind in the race

for infrastructure. £50 billion would be better spent on schools and

hospitals. It is £50 billion over loads of years, isn't it, about 20

years? I would still rather spend it on them, but then I live in the

south. You have plenty of railways, on them, but then I live in the

any friends in Manchester? I probably won't get any after this.

It is causing widespread devastation, we are losing homes and

space in Camden. Do you think Ed Balls wants to cancel it? It sounds

like he wants to. I think he needs to be reminded it is about capacity,

about the future and having some vision. Why cancel it? It is not

going to do anything for the North. I would not build it in the North.

They are building it so you can save 20 minutes on a train to

Birmingham. You will be able to move around the country quicker. What he

meant was his sister lives in Manchester and it would be handy.

There are some balls escaping. This document is the latest polling on

HS2. I know your balls are scientific, but this poll might be

more scientific, showing 60% of Labour voters are against HS2. So

should we just filmed this bit of paper and go home? Oh dear! That is

quite a shocking development. I think we will call it a day because

it is impossible to work it out. It is about half and half, maybe

slightly more in favour of construction.

Don't worry, Adam will get his box back together in time for the

Conservative conference in Manchester next week.

Although Ed Miliband stood at this podium and got a warm applause, they

voted overwhelmingly to renationalise the railways and also

the soon-to-be privatised Royal mail, which isn't Labour policy.

This is a flavour of those debates. The Royal mail offers an example of

one nation politics. Whether you live in St Ives or Inverness, you

can post a letter anywhere in the country for the same tariff. You can

be certain of a daily collection and there is a standard delivery across

the country. The next Labour government should renationalise. I

am very proud partner of a Royal Mail worker. He came home one day

recently and was quite subdued, not like him. And he said he had

encountered a distressed elderly lady on his delivery round. She had

approached him as a trusted postal worker, as a trusted postman. Her

carer for her husband had not turned up and she could not get him out of

bed. She called him into her home to do the most personal task, to help

her husband get up, get washed, get dressed and use the bathroom. That

is the level of trust the public has in its postal workers. TNT might be

interested in delivering in Camberwell or acting, but not in

Aaron. In London, they employ staff on zero hours contracts which means

they employ more people than they need, so every day people are sent

home without work. We are going back need, so every day people are sent

to the 30s. It is completely unacceptable. On the Royal mail

privatisation, can I see those in favour. Those against. Carried

unanimously. East Coast is proof a public owned and public accountable

railway can work. It can generate the funds to put back into the

railways, to invest in employing more staff to keep the public save,

invest in new rolling stock and new infrastructure. It has been party

policy since 2004 to take the railways under state control. Let's

make sure in 2015 when Ed Miliband walks into Downing Street, it is

government policy also. Our ideology is the right one and we should not

be afraid to talk about the ideology of public ownership. Whether it is

the railways, whether it is the power companies, the water

companies, gas or electric power companies, it does not matter,

whether it is telecommunications or the post service, they natural

monopolies, natural monopolies that should be in public ownership.

Emergency motion number one on rail. Can I see those in favour, please?

Those against. Carried unanimously. Today was the chance for Andy

Burnham to address his party. He said Labour would repeal the

government's health reforms which he said were leading to the sell-off of

the NHS. NHS values are Labour values. They are the country's

values. For 65 years they have served us well. But a new century

demands new thinking. Care of older people is not what anyone would want

it to be. So today, we set Labour's new mission, to make it right. This

conference can Compleat Bevan's vision, unite the NHS with social

care. Imagine one service looking after the whole person, physical,

mental and social. The NHS of the 21st-century. A National health and

care service based on people before profit. What a way to mark the 65th

anniversary and what a contrast with profit. What a way to mark the 65th

this government. They have spent all year running it down. And we know

why, don't we, conference? They are softening it up to sell it off.

Since April, all NHS services forced out to the market. And look at what

has happened. Major contracts for NHS work won by Tory donors. Donors

who bank Road Andrew Lansley when he was planning his health Bill. --

bankrolled. You can see why, private firms run by people who have donated

1.5 million to the Tories, winning 1.5 billion in NHS contracts. Who

gave this Prime Minister permission to sell the NHS to his friends? In

Cameron's NHS, the competition lawyers call the shots. They call

integration, " anti-competitive". Have you ever heard anything more

integration, " anti-competitive". ridiculous than that? The health and

social care act 2012 has placed the NHS on a fast-track to fragmentation

and privatisation. It has got to go and it will. In the first Queen 's

speech of the next Labour government, we will repeal the act.

The shadow health secretary. The ubiquitous sketch writer, Quentin

Letts has been following events here, and his verdict is spine

tingling. Is that the clinics having a dip

over there? It feels Hallowe'en might have come early because in the

conference hall behind me, it has been echoing to the ghostly cries of

spirit passed. Enough to give Ed Mili, the willies. The week has been

spirit passed. Enough to give Ed dominated by the spectre of Damien

bride, even though he has been politically deceased tints -- since

2009. -- Damian McBride. He has returned with tales of treachery in

the heart of new Labour. It is something I regret. Equally, I don't

think I was alone in politics, over something I regret. Equally, I don't

the last decades in some of the ways I operated. I hope one of the

effects of writing this book is people can see the truth of some of

these operations laid bare, learn from that and make sure those things

don't happen again. Ed Miliband has been out this week, but it has felt

retro. Delegates have been reassured welfare reforms will be exercised.

That has been bashing of Tory millionaires and Ed Miliband

breathed life into that old corpse called socialism. Will you bring

back socialism? That is what we are doing. It says on our party card,

democratic socialism. It works for all and not just for some. The

corridors here are full of ancient bogey men including Alastair

Campbell and Charlie Whelan. And then union red Len McCluskey took

umbrage because Ed Miliband walked out just as he was about to start

his speech. I am sorry Ed has left the platform. I know there are those

fearful of the prospect of a bad line in the Daily Mail. I say to

them, you will never, ever appease line in the Daily Mail. I say to

the right wing media. And to try the means you and our party. The Back To

The Future feel continued with a spot of Carry On Conference.

Somebody with the distinctly appropriate name of Balls was akin

to a naughty seaside postcard. It was a Prime Minister and his beach

towel. On the beach, changing into his swimming trunks, behind the

Mickey Mouse towel, captured with unflattering pictures spread across

the national press. I thought for a Prime Minister, it was a

surprisingly small towel! Conference, let us all agree, after

the last three years, the sooner Conference, let us all agree, after

David Cameron throws in the towel, the better. Ed Balls, Labour's very

own Kenneth Williams. It makes you wonder what will happen next week,

doesn't it? See you in Manchester. For those who stayed until the

bitter end, there was the chance to hear the speech from Harriet Harman.

There were jokes. Labour is the only party for women, and what a contrast

with the other parties. David party for women, and what a contrast

Cameron believes women should be seen and not heard - and that is

when he is thinking about his own cabinet. And as for the UKIP

when he is thinking about his own conference, where to begin! What can

you say about the human car crash that is Godfrey Bloom? A man so

unreconstructed, he makes Jeremy Clarkson lookalike Fabian. But

Godfrey, all is not lost, you have some time on your hands so I have

arranged a special emergency session for you at the Harriet Har person

Institute for political correctness. Godfrey, I will be on hand to give

you some advanced, one-to-one training and we will start with the

whisking the Dyson around the back of my fridge. Ed has shown, even

from opposition, the ability to make change. He stood up against phone

hacking, he averted David Cameron's rush to war in Syria and has shown

politics can make a difference. But Ed is also about a new kind of

politics, and that shines through everything he does. Like when he

got. Eggert. -- egged. When John Prescott, he got angry. When Ed

Miliband got hit by eggs, he said, I hope they are free range. That is

the type of guy he is. That is it that night. Ed Miliband

and his party leave in good spirits. He has positioned his party as the

defender of the people against the energy bosses. It gives the energy

-- party members something to say on the doorstep, but it gives opponents

something to aim at. The conference road show moves to Manchester next

week. I will be here next week as usual on BBC Two to give you the

highlights. But from Brighton, I will leave you with the traditional

way the Labour Party always ends its will leave you with the traditional

conference, the singing of The Red Flag.