National Delegate Conference in Bournemouth - 20th June 2006

I am attending this Conference as apart of the delegation from Herts County Branch.  Also attending for the week is Keith Price Branch Secretary, Natasha Lawrence Branch Chair, Kezia Price Steward and a Young Member, Julie Gilham and Sandra Gold Stewards. Duc Tran our Equality Officer, Christl Squires and Lorraine Warwick had attended the Local Government Conference on the behalf of the Branch on Monday and have returned home to Hertfordshire.

Woke up this morning feeling good.  Confusion over the time we were all to meet for breakfast, so half the group were on time and the other half were not.  For the first time I was early!

Conference started at 10am.  As one of the new delegates, we went to collect our bags (to keep half a rain forest in) and World Cup t-shirts and they even had fat man size for me!

Then we continued on in to the Conference hall.  We couldn't find the rest of the delegation or our seats, we then looked up in the gods to see Keith and co looking down on us.  We climbed the stairs to our seats and settled in for the day.

The first piece of business as always is the Presidents address to Conference.  This involved the usual stuff, thanks to everyone for their support, my family, friends and so on and so forth.

Conference then needed to agree what we were going to talk about, this comes from the Standing Orders Committee, this was carried after a lot of debate.  The Annual Report was carried with much debate.  The UNISON accounts where next on the agenda and these where also carried.

Next up was the business of the day, motions.  Eastern Region (our region) had the first motion of the Conference 'Under Funding of Social Care', as you will hear over the next couple of days ALL the motions are strenuously debated.  The motion was carried.  This theme carried on all day with motions on, Offshoring, Not So Sweet Sixteen (equal rights for 16 year olds) Public Services, NHS Marketisation and A Patient Led NHS.

Highlight of the Day

The General Secretary Dave Prentis, gave his best speech of any conference.  The man talked with conviction, passion and proudness.  He confirmed that if the Judicial Review over Pensions does not work then we would still keep fighting.  He also stated that any deal over the Local Government Pension Scheme would be voted on by the membership before it was accepted or rejected.  He also spoke about the change of power within the Labour Party and gave out a warning to any potential new leader that our support is not a god given and they will have to earn it.

Mark Deacon

Full-time Branch Officer and Welfare Officer