Tag Archives: labour for democracy

Making Labour Councillors more comfortable

By Simon McGrath | Mon 7th April 2025 - 4:04 pm

Labour Councillors in Merton have come up with a way of cutting down on scrutiny from opposition councillors – led by 17 Liberal Democrats. Last week’s Council meeting saw Labour force though a whole series of changes to the constitution which will drastically affect the ability of Opposition Councillors to hold them to account.

The draconian new rules:

Limit accountability on key issues by halving the number of questions to Cabinet Members.
Reduce the publication of key information on the administration’s performance and whether it’s meeting its own promises, by abolishing ‘strategic theme reports’ and questions.
Stifle debate on issues residents care about by limiting opposition motions. For smaller groups – like the Conservatives – that’s to fewer than one a meeting. Independent councillors will rarely, if ever be able to propose motions.
Gag minority political opinions. Again, smaller groups – like the Conservatives – will see their speaking time in debates limited.
Rig the rule’s in Labour’s favour by fixing it so that Labour councillors get more speaking time in debates, and giving the Labour Leader of the Council unlimited interventions.

Posted in Local government | Also tagged liberal democrats in local government | 4 Comments

Launch of Labour for Democracy

By NewsHound | Tue 4th December 2012 - 1:51 pm

Today, an influential group of Labour members are launching a new movement within their party: Labour for Democracy.

Its aim is to reach out to Lib Dems (and possibly Greens as well) in order to prepare a pluralist agenda around progressive issues. Although it does not explicitly say so, it is presumably also preparing the ground for a possible Labour-led coalition after 2015. Their position is based on polling evidence:

On all the major issues Labour and Lib Dem voters tend to give similar levels of support to broadly ‘progressive’ value statements, with Labour voters giving slightly stronger levels

…