Dear Editor,

May I clear up any misconceptions that people have about this year’s Labour Party Conference. I’d first like to thank all the members of the Sedgefield CLP for their support as the majority of members were very happy with the speech that Mick Simpson, Maria Cansella and I wrote.

I wish Mr Siddle had come to me rather than the local paper to address his concern, but every member has their individual politics and I wish to respect that and I’m glad I was challenged because it shows a good and healthy democracy.

I thank Kathryn Beetham for her kind words about my speech, but I wish to address Mr Welsh and his letter last week. I don’t see a problem with his opinions, however the points he made were very misconstrued.

Mr Welsh states ‘Brexit was not discussed’ however as someone present I can inform all members it was, and not just once. The time I gave my speech was devoted to Brexit and the debate actually slightly overran because so many people wanted to talk about Brexit.

It was also the object of discussion at many ‘fringe’ events – over three hundred and around a quarter of them were specifically about Brexit but almost all mentioned Brexit at least once. I hope Mr Welsh will now understand Brexit WAS discussed and I’m telling you that first hand.

Secondly I wish to discuss his belief that people were shouting “No Corbyn” when in fact everybody was chanting “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” because they realised what significance Jeremy has played in changing the political field.

May I also point out that the atmosphere was euphoric because although we lost the election we gained more than everyone expected . The issues he lists were issues that the Labour Party now believes in; for example how can we not agree with protecting our NHS from becoming the insurance based system that America has.

At the next election I have no doubt we’ll get a Labour government with these policies, it is just a matter of people seeing Corbyn for who he truly is.

I thank Mr Welsh for his letter and hope that he now understands his letter last week was riddled with mistruths, something I’m sure he didn’t do intentionally.

Owen Dickinson

Sedgefield CLP’s Youth Delegate for the Labour Party Conference