08 February 2002
But while both sides launched into heavyweight flurries of verbal sparring over the increasing use of private contractors, the raison d'être for Labour's spring conference – local government – was forced into a neutral corner. It may have been visible to delegates, but it was overlooked by the protagonists, who were determined to flex their collective muscle in the direction of the TV cameras.
Yet it was the issue of local government that inspired the unions' opening salvo on privatisation. Quoting from the local government white paper, published in December, Unison leader Dave Prentis said the government's commitment to 'more diversity and choice' at local level was 'a euphemism for more private company involvement'.
Labour's commitment to maintaining services 'free at the point of delivery', he added, was purely a semantic way of 'reassuring themselves that involving private companies is not privatisation'.
Prentis later accused Labour of 'hypocrisy' for failing to ensure that 'the backbone' of council employees – such as school cooks, benefits staff and refuse collectors – were given access to the local government pension scheme after the privatisation of such services.
Prentis's critique – which was followed by GMB leader John Edmonds' assertion that increased privatisation could become 'Labour's poll tax' – was thought by many to be the catalyst for Local Government Secretary Stephen Byers' claim that the local and national agenda was now a battleground between 'reformers and wreckers'.
The prime minister later echoed Byers in his closing speech, aiming an apparent low blow at the unions by seeming to accuse them of being 'small-c' conservatives who opposed change.
But amid the posing and posturing over privatisation, Prentis and other union leaders acknowledged that other aspects of the white paper represented a 'new dawn' for local councils.
Prentis praised Byers for his commitment to decentralisation – 'genuinely understanding' that local control of locally provided services was the way forward.
The GMB, meanwhile, joined Prentis in welcoming the decision to reform council finance systems – in particular, the scrapping of the Standard Spending Assessment and increased powers to trade and borrow.
Finally, Unison representatives told Public Finance that their 'spirits had been raised' by Byers' intimation that his department might review the use of catch-all categorisations to describe the quality of a council's services.
Delegates who crammed into Cardiff's International Arena in expectation of an open debate on local government issues may have been justified in asking 'why did we bother?' Any progress that was made in the debate over the future of local authorities emanated from the few fringe meetings that managed to focus on issues other than privatisation.
There was a paucity of debate over the local elections in May, and therefore little time for ministers to discuss councillors' concerns, such as voter apathy and the recruitment and retention problems rife across councils.
Indeed, one of the few keynote references to May brought the whole thing back to prize fighting. Byers urged councillors to 'take their gloves off' in the battle with Labour's rising local election nemesis, the Liberal Democrats.
Rather like the Lewis-Tyson farce, it seemed Cardiff was destined to end in a no contest.
PFfeb2002
