Southern Region Labour Party Conference Saturday 20, Sunday 21st February Reading.

As delegate for Reading West Labour Party I attended the Southern Region Labour Party and heard many excellent speeches from Cabinet Ministers, including the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, the Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, The General Secretary of The Labour Party, Ray Collins and John Prescott, star of Go Forth campaigning and Gavin and Stacey. The view in the packed hall from delegates and visitors is that we are far from beaten and that people are turning back to Labour as the only viable Government capable of taking Britain through difficult times.

David Miliband explained that the Tories have nothing to offer the electorate but eclusive tax cuts for the very rich and they were hoping to get away with just making the next election a referendum on Gordon Brown and not a vote for the next Government, thus avoiding any scrutiny on their policies, or a lack of them.

The overwhelming view from delegates is that we cannot trust the media to put across our polices for ending the recession and providing more jobs and security for home owners therefore we had to get out onto the streets for what is a fundamental change election for a number of years.

Speakers reiterated the problems that Labour faced when it came to power in 1997 such as waiting lists in the NHS, a crisis in school buildings and a shortage of teachers and nurses. These problems have been sorted in the last 13 years and the longest period of growth in Britain's history took place in the 11 years. However, Britain has faced the worst global economic recession for decades which has increased unemployment and brought about widespread uncertainty and a large deficit in Britains balances. The next election is crucially about which Government has the experience and policies to get Britian out of recession, rebuild the economy, creating long term jobs and prosperity and to curb the excesses of the City of London which got us into recession in the first place. This weekend has shown that Labour has the policies to make permenant progress again without jeopardising public services. We will wait and see what the Tories have to offer.