Tomorrow is the start of Labour’s National Policy Forum (NPF) where we will discuss the documents covering the range of Labour’s policies. If you’re at Warwick University this weekend, come and say hello!

The National Policy Forum is an innovation from the Neil Kinnock era. The first one took place in 1993, in Hammersmith, and it has met regularly ever since. It brings together Labour’s MPs, constituency activists and the affiliated organisations such as trade unions and the Fabians, and is modelled on some of the policy-making processes from our sister parties in Europe. The NPF was designed to allow a rolling programme of discussion about Labour’s programme, updating the policies in the light of circumstances and experience, and giving all of the parts of the Labour Party a say.

As an alternative to the old way of deciding policy - in secretive NEC committees and gladiatorial debates at the Labour Party Conference – it is a much-improved system. The legend of a Labour Chancellor Denis Healey having three minutes to explain the IMF deal to the Labour conference in Blackpool in 1976 shows how impractical the old system was. Until the 1990s, every single constituency Labour Party in the country combined had a vote of 10% of the Labour Party conference. Just imagine all of the earnest debates in constituency meetings all culminating in a conference where constituency activists had such a tiny proportion of the votes. So I am pleased that the NPF offers a much more inclusive way to make our policy.

That’s not to say the system cannot be improved. There’s some talk in the papers today comparing our session at Warwick University this weekend with the way Barack Obama is reaching out to new audiences in the USA. We should always be a bit wary of direct comparisons with the US, because of the differences in our political systems. But there is always something to be learned. One obvious lesson is the way US politicians have utilised the internet to engage people, canvass their views, raise funds, create local networks, mobilise supporters and get out the vote. Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook is crafting Obama’s social networking strategy, using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to create a profile of the candidate. I especially like his ‘fight the smears’ website

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/

which allows Obama’s team to fight back when his opponents throw mud. You only have to think about how the Swiftboat campaign killed John Kerry’s hopes to know how important ‘rapid rebuttal’ is.

But what about policy development? I am still to see a really effective on-line policy development initiative. The parties have tried it, with varying degrees of success. Perhaps there is a council group out there which does on-line policy development for its manifesto? I would love to hear about it. I am convinced on-line policy discussion and development would engage more people and be more productive, but we are not there yet. Until we are, I guess it’ll be the National Policy Forum for another year.