Thursday September 16
FOURTH DAY: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
MORNING SESSION
Congress re-assembled at 9.30 a.m.
The President: Delegates, I call Congress to order. Good morning. Before I begin the proceedings, can I again thank the NKS Jazz Quartet for playing us into this final morning of Congress. (Applause)
Delegates, we have been joined on the platform this morning by Baroness Jay, Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women. Baroness Jay will be addressing us shortly. I want you to give her a very warm welcome. (Applause)
I now want to explain how I intend to take the business today, but before doing so I want to ask the Chair of the General Purposes Committee to report to you.
General Purposes Committee Report
Mr John Cogger (Chair, General Purposes Committee): Comrades - thank you. Somebody said they will speak to me. I am hoping people will speak to me after what I have had to say. Unfortunately it is not good news.
Last night the President asked the General Purposes Committee to advise on speaking times, given the considerable volume of business that has not been taken from the scheduled programme. There is no doubt that a significant problem has arisen with many speakers not observing the limits set. The GPC has looked carefully at the outstanding business. There is a full programme already scheduled for this morning, including important equality debates. We also, however, have hanging over us from earlier in the week five motions and three composites. These include very important debates on the National Health Service, Transport and Energy.
To enable all the business to be completed, we have accordingly advised the President that an immediate cut in speaking time is necessary if Congress is to give equal treatment to all these debates that remain to be taken. We are accordingly recommending, President, that the speaking times for movers of motions should be cut from five to three minutes, and for seconders and other speakers from three to two minutes.
In addition, we recommend that union co-operation should be sought with the formal seconding of motions wherever possible and to request unions with supporting speaking rights on composites to consider waiving those. The GPC will also be advising the President to consider shortening the lunch break today and you will be kept informed after 11.30, after we have seen how the speaking times are going this morning.
I will also give you this assurance from the General Purposes Committee that we will be looking next year - and thank you very much for electing us again - at the time given to guest speakers because one of the problems that has arisen is, apart from certain general secretaries going very much over their time, most of the guest speakers have taken up more time than was allocated to them. Thank you Congress.
The President: Thank you John, and I want to thank the General Purposes Committee for that report. In the light of their recommendations to me, I am sorry about this but there is no alternative than that I propose to you that the Standing Orders should be suspended and that speaking times be cut as has been recommended to me by the General Purposes Committee. Is that agreed?
*The General Purposes Committee Report was ADOPTED.
The President: Thank you very much and you will also, I hope, manage to take note of the recommendation that, where at all possible, motions be formally seconded and that, if there is no contention in the debate, speaking rights be waived, and I am looking forward very much to your co-operation on that this morning.
We will begin the business scheduled in the programme for this morning with two exceptions. First, I intend holding over until this afternoon the debate on Composite Motion 5. The General Council has agreed a statement on the issues raised in that composite and that statement will be circulated to delegates later this morning and I will then take the debate as the first item of business this afternoon.
Secondly, I intend to take Clare Short's contribution at around 12.20 p.m. at whatever point in the business we have reached by then. After we have completed this morning's scheduled business, I will then move to take the outstanding business, first that from Monday, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, in the order in which the business appeared in the programme. So I hope that is clear to delegations.
Youth Check
The President: Colleagues, we begin this morning's proceedings with our final Youth Check, with three of our young visitors or delegates, and can we again give a warm welcome to Tony Robinson who is going to facilitate this session with the young people. Thank you very much, Tony. (Applause)
Mr Tony Robinson (British Actors Equity Association): We will keep our contribution this morning short as well, President. We have got Paul Dickens from UNISON, Adam Knight from Equity, Jamie Kerfoot from CWU and Andy Charlwood from MSF.
Adam, you have never been to a Conference before, have you?
Mr Adam Knight (British Actors Equity Association): No.
Mr Robinson: You were not a trade union activist or organiser before. What did you like best about Conference?
Mr Knight: I think what was most exciting about Conference was to see unions that are not necessarily affiliated to each other backing up each other's motions, particularly Colin Tarrant's motion about lobbying the Government to keep drama a key component of the national curriculum, and it was exciting to see a union like the NUT stand up and fight passionately about that and to see other unions doing the same for each other was really exciting.
Mr Robinson: Paul, what was your best moment?
Mr Paul Dickens (UNISON): I think it was probably the organising activity that we actually did on Sunday when we actually went out onto Brighton beach. A lot of young people went out there and it was just to get people interested and let them know that trade unions do exist, what they are there for and that they have got new employment rights.
Mr Robinson: Did you get any stick?
Mr Dickens: We got a bit of stick but then that is to be expected.
Mr Robinson: Jamie, what was your best moment?
Ms Jamie Kerfoot (Communication Workers Union): It had to be when my General Secretary spoke about the Post Office. It is very important to me. I am a counter clerk and obviously our Crown offices are under threat. It was great because it was carried unanimously and we need the support from all the unions here and the TUC to help us to fight for our jobs.
Mr Robinson: The best moment, Andy?
Mr Charlwood (Manufacturing Science Finance): I will keep it short. It is probably all the free drinks at the receptions. (Laughter)
Mr Robinson: What was your worst moment?
Mr Charnwood: Probably the hangovers which followed but, seriously, I was quite disappointed when we were out doing the organising and recruitment work in Brighton: we invited everybody who was a delegate at Congress to come out with the other young people and it was only the young people who went out and did it, and I was quite disappointed by that.
Mr Robinson: What was your worst moment, Paul?
Mr Dickens: I think it was probably going to some of the meetings with a lot of grey-haired, grey-suited old men who have done a lot of lip-service with young people's issues. (Applause)
Mr Robinson: How do you feel about that Adam, you were clapping?
Mr Knight: I agree. I think one of the most demoralising things I saw was to see the hall and the gallery packed out for Tony Blair's speech and the minute he left the hall emptied again, people went back to their papers and ignored the speaker who was speaking afterwards. I thought that was a real shame. (Applause)
Mr Robinson: Jamie, how can we make Conference more interesting for young people?
Ms Kerfoot: I think we need to be able to get up on the rostrum and say what we think, not just be visitors. I think this is great what we are doing now, but we need to actually say what we think and for people to vote on what we want as well.
(Applause)
Mr Robinson: Andy, people have been banging on at this Conference all week about youth. I think the word "youth" has been used even more than the word "partnership", and probably with as little conviction. Andy, what do you think we can do to make sure that more young people attend Conference?
Mr Charlwood: I think the whole way we do Conference needs to be re-thought. I was quite surprised, basically everything seemed to have been decided by Sunday night. The composites and everything had been put together, everybody had decided that they were going to support everybody else's motions, apart from the Bakers and the Miners. (Laughter) We had all decided that was the way we were going to vote in our delegation meetings. Everybody has been standing up making speeches all week, but we had already decided we were going to vote for them, so we were talking at each other, we were not really talking to each other and it just seemed like a real wasted opportunity. Given that we had all these people from different unions who must have a lot of the same experiences and we could share and learn from that, that was not what we were doing at all, we were just talking at each other and I thought that was quite sad. (Applause)
Mr Robinson: Paul, do you think that the trade union Movement will change fast enough to be able to attract young people?
Mr Dickens: I think the trade union Movement has got to move fast enough to actually catch up. We had a conference last night for young people and it was interesting to see that of the people who are sat on the platform who are telling us that young people's issues are actually important, there was only one of them actually took the time to turn up to it.
Mr Robinson: How many youth delegates and observers were here this year?
Mr Dickens: Out of the whole Congress there were only about 25 people.
Mr Robinson: How many unions were invited to send youth observers or youth delegates?
Mr Dickens: Every single union was entitled to send young people but unfortunately they feel it is not that important.
Mr Robinson: Jamie, would you come again next year?
Ms Kerfoot: Yes, but I want to be up on the rostrum saying what I think, and not just sitting here being looked at. (Applause)
Mr Robinson: I think that is a pretty good note to end on. Thank you very much everybody. (Applause)
The President: Thank you very much, delegates. I think you will agree that the Youth Check has added a fresh dimension to Congress and I just want to repeat something I said in one of the Youth Checks earlier this week, what the old English teacher had said to me, and that was "Listen, mark and inwardly digest", and I think if we ignore what the young people are saying, we do so at our peril.
So thanks again to Tony, thanks to Paul, Adam, Jamie and Andy, and to all the other young visitors and delegates who have participated over the week. Thank you very much indeed. (Applause)
Address by Rt Hon Baroness Jay, Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women
The President: Congress, it now gives me great pleasure to introduce you to the Rt Hon Baroness Jay of Paddington. In her role as Leader of the House of Lords, Margaret Jay has been one of the great successes of the Blair Government. In particular, she has gained the respect of all sides of the chamber for her expert handling of the constitutional reform process and, as Minister for Women, Margaret has made a real impact, steadily advocating the interests of women with her Ministerial colleagues across all Government Departments. I know that she places great emphasis on maintaining a constructive relationship with the women's structures of the trade union Movement and with trade unionists generally. So, Margaret, we are extremely pleased to have you with us here today and may I now invite you to address Congress. (Applause)
Rt Hon Baroness Jay (Leader of the House of Lords and Minister for Women): Thank you very much indeed for that warm welcome and to Congress for inviting me here to speak this morning. I am very conscious of the fact that I am the first Minister for Women to have been invited to speak from this honoured platform. Of course, being the Minister for Women is in itself a new appointment, part of the New Labour Government's modernisation of government and, as Hector said in his introduction, I am also the first Leader of the House of Lords to address you and so those are two 'firsts'.
I have to say that I would not describe the House of Lords as a centre of modernisation, although that itself is changing and it is changing not least because we are being joined by new colleagues, and I am particularly glad at this point to acknowledge the fact that David Lea and Hector himself are joining us and I am sure they will make a very substantial contribution to the new second chamber that this Government is determined to change for the better in Parliament.
It is a very important overdue reform that the Labour Government will be carrying out to get rid of the hereditary Peers, to get them out of Parliament, to make sure that, even by Christmas, the automatic right of a person who inherits a seat in Parliament by virtue of the fact that his father, grandfather, or more likely someone back in the mediaeval mists of time was a Peer, ceases to have a say in the policies which affect all of us in our everyday life.
I think the other thing we must remember is it is not only getting rid of that privilege, of that birthright, but it is also getting rid of a very solid, energetic, and particularly energetic, group of Tory voters because, make no mistake about it, the hereditary Lords are and always have been Tories. They are 99% white and out of a total of 750 of them, there are only 17 women. I think it is time that we said "Goodbye" to them, and we certainly intend to do so, but the fact that there are only 17 out of 750 of the House of Lords hereditary peerage who are women certainly gives me more energy to take on the tasks that I do as Minister for Women. It makes it even more important and gives me even more enthusiasm for making sure that life is better for all the women of this country.
This morning, mindful of what has been said about the time limits, I do want to set out for you what it is that I and Tessa Jowell, who is the other Minister for Women as well as being the Minister for Public Health, have been trying to do in the last year. Of course, it goes without saying that women do benefit from every improvement that the Government is making, whether it is economic stability, enhanced rights at work, improved public services - all of those bring a benefit to women. But there is always more that we can do as Ministers who are specially committed to women's issues and women's rights and Tessa and I are very conscious of that responsibility.
We have just carried out the first ever Government organised 'Listening to Women' campaign. Tens of thousands of women have participated in that from all over the UK. We have held road shows in every region of England as well as Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland. 28,000 women took advantage of a follow-up postcard campaign to communicate directly with us by sending in their ideas. We have also, as many of you will know because we have talked with you, spoken directly with women's union groups and we hope to follow that up and I have been discussing that this morning with the Women's Committee with a special 'Listening to Women' forum meeting the trades unions together.
It has been the biggest ever consultation with women. We have had a genuine dialogue but now there is an opportunity which we want to focus on and build on this autumn to shape policies and action together coming out of that listening exercise. So next month, at the beginning of October, we will publish our report Listening to Women but it is not going to be just an account of what we have heard; it is going to be a programme of action for Government Departments right across Whitehall to take on board right across the whole field of their activity.
It will come, I am sure, as no surprise to you that time after time the issue that has come out top of women's concerns is balancing work with home life. Women do want to work but they also want to know that their kids are safe. They want to have independence but they want to be there for and with their families. I think it is true to say, certainly the research shows it, that most of the women who work today go to work not just because they have to but because they probably want to. At the same time, they remain the prime carers in the overwhelming majority of families. It remains true that women still do most of the domestic work. I have to say I was quite surprised to find that they do five times as much as men!