At no stage in this misguided initiative has Miliband (or others who oppose the status quo) explained why increasing the number of individual trade union members of Labour is incompatible with maintaining union links and collective union affiliation with Labour. The solution is political not organisational. Labour must present a progressive alternative to Con Dem austerity and deliver quickly when elected. That, rather than an abstract One Nation mantra, is the only path to a mass membership Labour Party.
As Dave Prentis recently said of working people and Labour: 'what most people will really want to know is what are you going to do about the pay freeze we’ve had for five years, about building a million houses, what are you going to do about getting nearly one million young unemployed people into work. They want to know what Labour’s going to do about fairness within the economy and about the health service. They do not want to know about union – party relations. This isn’t a priority for ordinary people'
http://labourlist.org/2013/09/its-up-to-the-labour-party-to-recruit-labour-members-labourlist-interviews-unisons-dave-prentis/
http://defendthelink.wordpress.com/
