What's happening at Newcastle East CLP?

It has been a busy period in politics, and I am hesitant to write anything for fear it will go out of date almost immediately, given how swiftly events are moving. However, I would like to take this opportunity to pass on to members of Newcastle East CLP some information about what is happening locally.

My understanding from the Chair, David Wood, is that Newcastle East CLP will not be holding a nomination meeting, due to concerns over bullying and harassment. This decision was, I believe, made in conjunction with CLP officers.

Unlike the other CLPs in Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle East CLP holds closed meetings where it is only possible to attend if delegated from the branch AGM. In order for delegate appointments to be valid, the branch is required to have a quorum of 25%. Newcastle East, however, reduced its quorum to 15% last year - another story!

When Newcastle East CLP held its Annual General Meeting in May it was reported that only 4 of the 9 branches were quorate at their AGMs. If correct this would mean over half of delegates not having the democratic backing required under Party rules. 

CLP chair and Secretary, David Wood and Walter Gilmour, have refused to say which branches were quorate, stating simply that, "All branches meet the criteria laid out by the Regional Office." However, along with Regional Director Fiona Stanton, they will not say what the criteria are for branches that do not achieve a quorum.

This leaves a massive question mark over who on the CLP has democratic legitimacy: since we do not know which branches were quorate, we cannot know whether, for example, David Wood and Walter Gilmour are the legitimate chair and secretary. Both of these positions, and all other positions on the CLP executive, are elected by CLP delegates, over half of whom have apparently not been elected by a quorate branch meeting. Indeed, we don't know whether the Chair and Secretary's own branches were themselves quorate. If the y were not, then under the delegate model they are not eligible to be delegates never mind executive officers!

All of this has a knock-on effect to the Local Campaign Forum, members of which are elected from the CLP, and whose decisions affect the whole Newcastle City Council area and not just Newcastle East CLP!

This confusion could easily be cleared up by the CLP executive being transparent about which branches were quorate when appointing delegates. 

An even better solution, however, would be to dispense with the unnecessary delegate model altogether and allow all members of Newcastle East CLP to attend CLP meetings in the same way that Newcastle Central and Newcastle North do.

Given that it seems over half of CLP delegates from branches have no legitimacy, why should other members be excluded? Under such circumstances the CLP becomes simply an unelected clique.

As an example of how undemocratic the CLP executive seems to be behaving, consider the case of Mark Winskell. Mark's branch, Jesmond North, was one of the few which was quorate and he was duly appointed onto the executive. Subsequently, however, he has been excluded from a Working Group at the CLP, which was set up precisely to examine the issue of branches failing to achieve quorum! 

We therefore have a situation in which members who may have been appointed without democratic legitimacy are sitting on an executive Working Group, from which they are excluding an Executive Delegate who actually has legitimate democratic backing! 

When Mark contacted Secretary Gilmour to request participation in the Working Group express, he was apparently accused by Chairmain Wood of bullying and harassment!

Here are a few things that members of Newcastle East CLP could do about this situation: Firstly, you could contact the CLP secretary, whose email address is on your membership card, and ask him to confirm which branches were quorate - though he will likely refer you to the delegate from your branch, for which there is a 5 in 9 chance your delegate was not appointed by a quorate meeting and is therefore by definition not a legitimate delegate; Secondly, you could also contact your branch chair and secretary with the same query; Thirdly, you could enquire whether members are allowed access to CLP meetings without the backing of a quorum, whilst other members are not; And finally you could call for open CLP meetings with transparent rules and procedures.