Voting for Jeremy Corbyn - the political equivalent of buying a Harley Davidson

Yes Tegan I was pleased to hear that - clearly wiser counsel has prevailed. Both men have important roles and listening to what they say should be interesting

There wasn't really a problem.
They were not speaking because the party wanted more grssroots speakers, ordinary people to speak.
Neither Khan nor Burnham were bothered.
They can speak now because there are some gaps in the programme because some speakers have backed out.
I am sure those who want to can make mischief out of that.

That is not correct

That's what I was told.
I thought you were not a member any more?

Did you ? Your mistake

I thought you said you'd resigned.

After fifty years of working for the party.

Brighton and Hove has the biggest active Local Labour Party in the country. Thousands of us and growing by the day.

Are you going to see any of the conference, whitewave?

After fifty years of working for my local political party I resigned

I had exactly the same memory as durham so did what I had been critical of previously and found this ( but hardly historical as it was on 11 September).

Would someone explained to the new members of the party, resigning as secretary of the local party does not mean leaving the party.

Perhaps you just need to be a little clearer in what you say Annie. I wonder at you believing the myth of unions running the government. It is of course a Tory myth created by Mrs Thatcher for her own nefarious ends (although arguably it does have its roots in the General Strike of 1926).
I'm much more worried about the huge bodies which lobby Parliament and spend fortunes on this. A theoretic example might be a Bill to prevent the UK selling arms to Saudi Arabia. There would be a set number of MPs in favour of this and some who were completely against it. The MPs who were undecided would be blitzed by the arms manufacturers and lobbied constantly. If they eventually succombed to the lobbying and voted against the Bill that would be running the government. Not something I see the unions doing.

trisher Unions lobby the government too, don't they?

Unions do Primrose65 as do many other organisations. I think there are probably degrees of lobbying and it should be more regulated than it is. Unions in the end are answerable to their members and can be held to account by them, although they are now massive, their resources are much more limited than many of the lobbyists, and their motives are usually the welfare of their members i.e working people. No one accuses organisations such as ADs of "running the government" although they have many more connections and more cash than most organisations www.adsgroup.org.uk/membership/my-sectors/defence/
It's just interesting that a movement that looks after the interests of working people should be demonised whereas one which organises killing and maiming people is untouched.

When the Milliband brothers stood for Party leader, David Milliband gained the support of MP's andparty members, the unions voted in Ed Milliband

... and then there is the press trisher. When it comes to who influences the government I would have thought the unions come well down the list. It is already being mooted that TM is making her speech because of pressure from big business.

Would someone explained to the new members of the party, resigning as secretary of the local party does not mean leaving the party

Well I for one am perfectly capable of understanding that point if you had actually posted that that was what you had done in the first place.

Swarm time again

anniebach your original post was far far from clear - you roundly told another poster she was mistaken. I then reposted what you had said to show why she had come to the conclusion she had. You then rounded on me for not understanding that you had resigned as secretary to your local party. I explained that I couldn't understand that point because that wasn't what you had posted. You then fire back for the second time with the swarm comment. If you regard that as acceptable language in that context then it says a great deal about you.

I do understand it can be difficult for newbies

Local party does not mean The Party ,

So the mayor of London can speak now others have dropped out!

I was reading about that.

Labour leadership thought that the membership should be rewarded by allowing them to speak at conference, because of the enormous amount of work they have put in during the past couple of years. Democracy is alive and well in the Labour Party. Clearly some people in the Labour Party were peeved that they would not get their message 5 minutes of glory. The party listened they will now be able to get their message out there. Hope it is worth listening to.

With regard to council tax, I don't think people should get a reduction because they live on their own. I think that should be reduced and then withdrawn. It would encourage people to downsize and free up houses for families.

I think the word you are looking for annie is sorry. I expect you've posted that already and I didn't understand it. Your post about resigning could be a thread in Pedants Corner regarding its ambiguity as to what you actually resigned from. But, never mind, I've already enough wasted time as it is.

loopylou you make a good point there about downsizing, but that should only apply when someone lives in a property that they could downsize from, not one bed flats or properties of low value. Plus only adults are liable for Council Tax, so a single adult with children living with them would already be a family. I think it might be a bit complicated to make it fair.