GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

BRO IAN LAWRENCE (NAPO): These types of debates are especially difficult for

me personally, I guess Yvonne as well. We are not going to argue at all

against anything that anyone has said and you will know absolutely personally

we support every word of it. However, we must abstain from this vote,

regrettably, on the basis, quite simply, that NAPO does not have a political fund

that would even allow us to do the sorts of activities as suggested in the

motion, because it would bring us into conflict with the legislators. However,

we have not sat on our hands doing nothing so far in this election and we have

written (and please forgive me, colleagues from Scotland) to all the

mainstream parties in England and Wales, because they represent where we

have members to ask them about their manifesto commitments, how they tie in

with our objectives for our members and we will promote those amongst our

membership in order to assist them in their decision making process.

That is to clarify why we are abstaining, but I do not want to waste time explain

myself on that for the next two minutes or so. I want us to think beyond where

we are now. Manuel said the idea that we cannot change things is manifestly

in us. Absolutely spot on. Glyn talked about Leicester City winning the

Premier League from an impossible position. Fair point. If I say something

which will bring a deep sigh you had better look at the stats. Our current

electoral system in the UK is not only corrupt, it militates against the prospects

of progressive left leaning parties winning outright power. Let me tell you, yes,

we will be getting out there and exhorting people to change their minds and

vote Labour, but unless you do that in the 280 to 300 marginal seats that exist,

every vote out there is almost wasted, it counts for absolutely nothing under our

current system, a system that was built on the basis of a duopoly between the

two main contending parties all those years ago, but we live in a different

political landscape now. I am not going to argue about a particular system of

reform, but I want to put a marker down for further debate going forward in the

GFTU and its affiliates and that is to promote the debate around proportional

representation. If you want a Government that is going to do the things we all

want then you have got to start looking at a system that makes it possible or

more possible and there will be people who will say, “They have coalition

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