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The Labour Party Annual Conference ended on Wednesday 24th September. This is the last Annual Conference before the General Election next May. The policies it signed off will be those that form the basis of the Labour Party election manifesto 2015.
Education was not a strong feature of the conference. In fact Tristram Hunt’s speech on education is one of the shortest in recent years. He used his seven minutes on the podium to remind conference delegates and participants of some of his often repeated comments (e.g. “a world-class teacher in every classroom”, “an education system that works for the forgotten 50 per cent”, “Labour will legislate for childcare support at schools from 8am – 6pm” ….).
If the aim was not to startle the audience with new arguments, or by bringing out generally unperceived consequences of policies already agreed then the speech must be counted as a success. As to its length one is reminded of Mark Twain’s comment in a letter to a friend “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” On that basis perhaps one could say that Tristram Hunt must have spent quite a long time on his speech. You can read it for yourself here.
The Fringe meeting organised jointly by CASE, ACCORD and the SEA was very successful and will be reported separately.
Socialist Educational Association 