The NPF emerged from the party reforms forged under Neil Kinnock. There seems to be a lazy myth emerging that Tony Blair was the only great moderniser and nothing happened before him or after him. In truth, most of the important reforms to the party’s structures were conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including quotas for women and one member one vote for candidate selection. The NPF, an idea incubated in Labour Coordinating Committee seminars after the 1983 debacle, was part of a package designed to make Labour a modern European social democratic party. I was on the LCC executive at the time, and our idea was simple enough. Labour party conference was undemocratic, with constituency delegates collectively only holding one in 10 of the votes. It was a presentational disaster. The BBC televised huge chunks of it, with the endless procedural rows, speeches by cranks and eccentrics, and debates about whether to back the IRA or not. For every minute of Labour party conference on the TV, a voter switched to Thatcher. So the NPF was intended to be part of a ‘rolling programme’ of policymaking, with space for deliberation, discussion and consensual decision-making. It was like making a shift from bare-knuckle boxing to pilates.

I’ve only been to two NPF meetings. The first was in 1993, at the Ark in Hammersmith, which thanks to the collapse in the property market under the Tories, the Labour party hired for a song. Labour’s infamous ‘spin’ operation comprised David Hill, and me. He – calm, authoritative, professional. Me – starstruck, with a winning blend of enthusiasm and ineptitude. We utilised a new communications device called a ‘mobile phone’ to enhance our operation. One of my roles was to sit in a BBC radio truck with Blair on Hammersmith Broadway, an event I suspect had more impact on me than him. I forget what John Smith said in his speech, or what was in the documents we passed that day. But I do recall thinking that, although it lacked the excitements and rituals of conference, it looked and felt more like a gathering of political professionals and less like a scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

The second one was in 2007, at Warwick University. This was ‘Warwick II’, the NPF which would determine the programme for the fourth term of Labour government. It was a disaster. We’d just lost a by-election, Gordon Brown’s speech was tone-deaf, and all the talk was of plots, coups and defeat. In dark corners and anterooms, hints were hinted and soundings sounded. Somewhere along the way, from the optimistic desires of its founders, the NPF had descended into a stage-managed, sclerotic charade. Delegates put forward ideas. Ministers told them they couldn’t have them in the document. In an entirely different set of rooms, the trade unions negotiated with No 10. It was horrible.

One of the problems with the NPF is that was never designed to replace the conference, but to add an extra layer of debate to the policymaking process. Most of the NPF constituency reps work incredibly hard. The ones representing me do, travelling vast distances to visit Labour branches. But despite their heroic efforts, the NPF remains an add-on extra to the structure of branches, GCs and party conference. As such, party members have never taken it to their hearts. I hope that the Refounding Labour exercise comes up with some practical ideas to engage party members in policymaking. The idea behind the NPF, that policy is best made through discussion, not arm-wrestling, remains sound.

I punched the air with delight when Ed Miliband announced his intention to scrap shadow cabinet elections last night. It is unfinished business from the Kinnock era, which Blair never bothered to address, what with running the country and all. Three things matter now: that the proposal gets overwhelming endorsement from the PLP as a sign of Ed’s strength; that Ed chooses a shadow cabinet based on talent, campaigning zeal and popular appeal, not patronage and favours; and that this is just the start of Ed’s drive to modernise the party. Ed the Moderniser knows the only way to lead the Labour party is from the front, and at breakneck speed.

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