The flight from Manchester now departing
Further shenanigans in the conference hall during today's health debate. Dave Prentis, with around 20 seconds to go to complete his speech, had his mike switched off by the chair, MEP Gary Titley. This seemed more than a little unfair as delegates sympathetic to the NEC position (to remit the Unison motion) had had courteous reminders that their allocated time was coming to an end, unlike Prentis. Protests ensued from all over the hall, from unions and CLPs. Jack Dromey got up to make a point of order, protesting at this "disgraceful" treatment. The problem was, what Prentis was saying was going down so well with delegates, their applause was cutting into the time available for his speech. Shortly afterwards, Jeremy Beecham assumed the chair, because Titley had to get on a rather sudden flight to Brussels.