Scottish Labour Party Conference

The Scottish Labour Party spring conference was held on Saturday. The normal annual conference has been moved to October to enable the policy programme for the 2011 Scottish Parliament elections to be agreed.


One day conferences in the run up to a general election are inevitably going to look and feel like a rally. None the less there was time for substantive contributions from the floor. UNISON’s Gordon McKay gave a very clear analysis of why Scottish Labour should oppose PFI and adopt our sustainable approach to capital funding. Many other speakers and film clips highlighted the impact of public service cuts on our communities.

Iain Gray’s speech was well received both for its content and its presentation. The contrast between serious politicians for serious times was a mainstream theme throughout the conference. The Prime Minister’s speech of course makes this contrast most apparent.

And of course we had John Prescott and his GoFourth campaign. Good old fashioned barnstorming performance, full of knock about politics. A real contrast with the Facebook/Twitter generation of political campaigning – but entertaining none the less!