Bristol West CLP AGM and vote of confidence in Corbyn

There is an apparent professional blog doing the rounds on social media which is shown at the bottom of this brief report.

That and this report relate to the same Constituency Labour Party meeting in Bristol this week.

They offer two very different views. There is a third view published at the end of this report.

It either shows how perceptions vary and or how very different a view can be for what could be many reasons.

It also highlights that following procedures is important.

We held an emergency meeting ahead of our CLP AGM and suggest that could be a way forward for Bristol.

My eldest son, he's 27, he went to a CLP [Constituency Labour Party] meeting in Bristol this evening - and then rang me and is very upset...

My son estimates that there were around 1000 people at the Bristol meeting, spread between two rooms as so many had turned up - their M.P did a talk in which she ran down and criticised [Jeremy] Corbyn.

They then did an unofficial hands up on confidence in JC - my son says about 90 per cent showed support for Jeremy, despite the efforts of this woman to sway opinion against him.

This support will not be passed by the CLP however - something to do with it not being on the agenda or some such non-sense - members had not received communication about this - my son is disgusted - he's spent months, now, reading and attending meetings to better his understanding of politics - he felt that he, and many other (most other) people at the CLP meeting tonight were side-lined and dismissed.

My son is a top graduate of the University of Bristol - he won top student awards every year of his four years doing a Masters in Engineering - and now works in the technology industry (actually designing, an architect of, the workings of the latest mobile phones) - he is well paid for this but my son cares, really cares, about what is happening to the structures of our society - surely the Labour Party can do better than side-line the opinions of such people as we new members are, especially in view of the numbers of us who are turning up, turned on to politics like never before...

​Sarah Thelwall

https://medium.com/@ruthie_dee/no-longer-welcome-in-my-own-home-4672dc7a08a5#.nk64gtk83

​http://www.newtekjournalismukworld.com/british-political-scene/hull-west-clp-vote-to-support-jeremy-corbyn

"I attended my first meeting of the Labour Party at my Bristol West CLP AGM last night. The meeting was packed, it was very exciting and the atmosphere was really good. Then it seemed to me that the politics started to come into play.

First we were told there were too many people, there couldn’t be a proper debate as they had to use an overspill room and they would have to reschedule; the meeting would be in a month’s time. Everyone wanted to debate what had happened recently in the Labour Party now, before the Summer recess. Most people couldn’t understand why the meeting just couldn’t go ahead.

Reason after reason was put in front of us not to hold the meeting; it was too hot in the rooms – “no it’s fine”; no proper debate was possible because we were in two rooms – “let’s get rid of the chairs, we’ll stand”; it was a H&S risk because of the numbers – “we can all move to Kings Square across the road, there’s plenty of room there, we have a megaphone”.

OK, they agreed we’d have part of the meeting.

They knew we wanted to carry out a debate and vote for Jeremy Corbyn, so our MP Thangam Debonnaire agreed to talk to the main room first and we would debate.

She would then move onto the overspill room, speak and debate there. The people up for election would talk first to the overspill and then come into the main room. The votes would then be cast. This was all carried out, followed by thanks because people were stepping down.

They then said that the meeting had to end because the room had only been booked till a certain time and we would have the vote for Jeremy Corbyn at the next meeting. Everybody was incredulous, I felt we’d been played and heavily manipulated. They told us the meeting would be next week.

To cap it all they then said that the motion for confidence in Jeremy Corbyn had not been received in time and hadn’t been sent out to the members prior to the meeting, so it couldn’t be debated or voted on. Eventually they told us they had received the motion but someone had forgotten to add it to the agenda and send it out with the other meeting documents.

I believe that the meeting went exactly as they had planned it; they had decided they wouldn’t let us have the vote. The only reason that people were upset and yes angry, was because of those actions; plus of course the reasons that our MP gave as to why she couldn’t work for Jeremy Corbyn. I was very disappointed by their actions and embarrassed that every other CLP has managed to vote but ours (although I understand other CLPs are experiencing similar problems). One good thing the elections went in our favour.
​
BTW I am using ‘they’ because it seemed a lot of different people took the mike besides the chair."