Be still and ‘Pool in thy own mind: notes from the Labour Party conference

Recently, I visited my friends in Belfast and had an unusual experience. I had a dream almost exactly recapping what I had done yesterday, essentially replaying my most recent memories. My friends understandably found this very funny when I told them. How strange, how silly, for the limits of your imagination to be the world around you? That in a world you shape, you can't even get beyond what's already there?

It was in that vein I found myself once more taking the train to Liverpool and attending the Labour Party Conference, whose leadership are facing the same charges from many quarters. Elected on a platform of “change", why aren't the public seeing or feeling the benefits? The sense of imagination – the ability to dream beyond what is – seems in short supply.

Generally speaking, the conference was lacking some of the energy of last year, which was held in the wake of Labour's landslide victory. There were fewer stands set up by different organisations this year, including many civil society organisations and charities. Apparently, this is because Labour has significantly increased its prices for conference stands this year, which doesn't bode well for hosting a wide expanse of perspectives and opinions.

My first stop on Sunday morning was the Christians on the Left church service at St. James in the City. It was very well attended, which was noted by a number of speakers saying that there had been a renewal of faith in the labour movement in the last few years. There were many MPs and a few frontbenchers in attendance. I spoke to my colleague Hannah Rich afterwards, who organises the event as Director of Christians on the Left. She later told Premier Christian News that she “doesn't think we should echo the rhetoric that we hear from Reform".

At Challenging the Rise of the Far Right and Racism with Stand Up To Racism, we heard from more left-wing voices from the Labour backbenches and unions. These are the kind of voices and organisations that have been increasingly sidelined over the course of Keir Starmer's tenure as party leader. We heard from speakers about how the threat from the far right was more serious than it had ever been in Britain, and that people need to be offered a coherent alternative.

Over at the Make Polluters Pay stand, I got more of that sense of urgency. This year, we were lucky enough to have a spot right beside the entrance to the MPs lounge in the conference arena, which meant MPs heard plenty about the need to make oil and gas companies pay for the climate damage they are causing! It was a good opportunity to catch up with our partner organisations such as Greenpeace, Christian Aid, and Global Witness. And of course, for the obligatory group photo.

I went to several events focussed on international development, which were held in the context of devastating budget cuts that were forced on the department earlier this year. Current Minister for International Development Jenny Chapman defended the government against some stern criticisms from the sector. She indicated a willingness to cooperate deeply with NGOs but it's difficult not to think about the long-term damage these cuts will cause on a global level.

The sessions on Palestine were, for me, the moral centre of the week. At Justice for Palestine: Confronting Genocide & Ending Apartheid, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, I heard voices unafraid to name injustice clearly. They put in some hard work with delegates to ensure that a motion was passed recognising the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Later, at How the Labour Government Can Make a Real Difference in Israel and Palestine – held in the peaceful simplicity of the Liverpool Quaker Meeting House – there was room to breathe and to think. The stillness of that space seemed to invite a different kind of conference, one that had a refreshing clarity of spirit and message through relative quiet.

Keir Starmer's speech was not received particularly well at the event I watched it from, which was packed with other public affairs professionals. References to “the real face of Britain" being “cutting the half time orange" and “painting a fence" were met with groans and incredulity. I found that his words lacked any kind of vision of the future, of what good a Labour government would do with its power. Despite this, most media at the conference were full of praise for the speech, which made me question whether they had heard the same one as the rest of us.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the conference and the direction it seems to be pointing our society in. The following quote kept coming to mind:

“Evils which have struck their roots deep in the fabric of human society are often accepted, even by the best minds, as part of the providential ordering of life." Advices & Queries 23

I heard from and spoke with many talented visitors and grassroots delegates; people who sincerely wanted to transform the domestic and global inequalities and injustices we are facing. But many of those in positions power seem unaware of what we face: a dire meeting of multiple crises requiring a total reimagining of what government should be. And yet, the political establishment seems content with the moral rot that has set in a long time ago, and to manage the decline with wilful ignorance, budget cuts, and message management. The Labour vision, the Labour dream, seems more like a rehashed memory.