TONY Blair has given us a taster of how decisions are going to be taken in New Labour - by unelected full time officials.
The Brighton Young Labour conference was an exercise in how to prevent discussion.
Even before the weekend had got underway left delegations were being ruled out of order. The left-inclined RMT were prevented from taking part on a technicality.
Student groups - bastions of Blairism - were allowed to affiliate twice; once as Young Labour Groups, once as student groups.
This gave them twice as many delegates.
When the Clause Four vote Blair Dance We put the Clause 4 in You take the Clause 4 out, You stamp on all our principles And shake the lefties out, You smile at everybody As you spin around the floor:
That's what it's all about.
OH Tony, Tony, Tony, OH, Tony, Tony, Tony, OH, Tony, Tony, Tony, Right foot forwards Blair, Blair, Blair. was called, the result by show of hands was too close to call. But by the time of the card vote this had miraculously turned into a 4 to 1 majority in favour of Blair.
Diane Jeuda marched the whole USDAW delegation into her bedroom to let them know that anyone who voted for the retention of Clause Four had no future in the union.
The TGWU abstained on the vote, and many left unions were not present, including the NUM, FBU and BECTU.
Given these circumstances the Clause Four result is not so disheartening.
A truly democratic conference would have come up with a different result.