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3 February 2012
Dear Member
An update following our meeting on 24 Jan and a few other things too …
Annual Conference 2012 will take place in Manchester (Sun 30 Sep to Thu 4 Oct). (See LI Conference page)
We can nominate for the 5 NEC CLP Section places. In about a week, the CVs will be made available on the website and we are asking you, the membership, to indicate your preferences. We can submit either a rule change (deadline 22 June) or a contemporary resolution (deadline will be in August or September). We will sort out how many delegates we will send after we have finalised the 2011 accounts and Frazer has put forward a budget for 2012.
We had hoped to be making a nomination for the National Policy Forum too – I shall query this with head office.
Partnership into Power: this consultation was extended to 31 Jan but LICC had received no further comments to add to those already submitted from both Brussels and Costa Blanca branches. (See LI page)
New Politics, Fresh Ideas: this consultation has a deadline of end June so LICC would like comments before 11 June then I can collate them before we meet on 14 June.
Money: the reorganisation of party finances means that LI will receive less money to fund basic expenses. As UK CLPs receive some £1200 in goods/services that we don’t receive in LI and as our rules require that the LICC members meet at Conference each year, Frazer will be making an application to the Democracy & Diversity fund for extra money.
Membership: 789 members (626 with email, 91 postal and 72 “gone away”.
Branch/Group Liaison: Jo Wood is organising a Sister Party reception for the Belgian communal elections in Spring. Some LI Costa Blanca members are going to be in Washington DC in April & have made contact with local LI Correspondent; Val Stevens (2011 Conference delegate) is going to be in Chicago in April and hopes to meet members there. Jeremy Millard is hoping to meet with members in San Francisco in April. (See LI’s page)
The European Parliamentary Labour Party newsletter for Jan 2012 arrived with me yesterday and mentions “Cameron’s Phantom Veto” amongst other stuff you might find interesting.
Hungary: Labour MEPs and their Socialist and Democrat Group in the European Parliament have been active over the last 18 months in criticising the Orbán government in Hungary. Orbán appeared in the Parliament this month and was held to account by the Group. Labour’s Claude Moraes is the Group spokesperson on the subject, and he has been a long-term and regular critic of Orbán, in the Parliament’s debates and in other public statements.
SW France: Tania Rogers and Val Stevens are working together on getting a group started in this area. If you live in the regions of Aquitaine, Limousin, Midi-Pyrenees or the Auvergne expect to hear from Tania or Val soon.
Germany – SPD International: Jo Billingham, International Manager sent us the following email from the SPD: “During the latest SPD convention in Berlin in December 2011 the establishment of SPD International was agreed. This represents a great step forward for us as we finally will become officially accepted with adequate rights for our members. The whole structure will be similar to Labour International – a successful model for a functioning foreign branch.”
LI website: some changes have been made by Jeremy. We agreed to keep the blogging area under “Members Participation” for longer-term discussion and hope to have a “Message from Ed Miliband” on the site soon. Members with suggestions for changes or improvements to the website should send them to Jeremy direct on web-master@labourinternational.net
Remember – the password for the Members’ pages on our website is expat
Facebook: Alex confirmed LI’s FB page now has 125 members. Alex is working on some Guidelines for use of our FB page. You can join it via http://www.facebook.com/groups/141749912553090. It’s a closed group so apply to join and normally will be accepted within 24 hrs.
Vickers Report on Banking: Resolution on this matter was accepted from Costa Blanca (Spain) branch. See detail via the LICC meeting minutes of 24 January 2012.
Future Meetings are going to be on the 2nd Thursday of each month so if there is anything you want raise with LICC, campaigns you want us to be involved with, etc – just let me know. (See LICC meeting dates and minutes)
Finally, if you change your postal or email address don’t forget to let me know.
Regards
Lorraine
Lorraine Hardy
Secretary LICC
Labour International Coordinating Committee
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