The main debate was on Ukraine. A motion, based on the Stop the War (StW) position, was proposed on the basis that we all want peace and an end to war, and that NATO was the main problem. There was an attempt to amend the motion to include a recognition of the Ukrainians right to self-determination and self-defence, moved by the past president of the union in a very impassioned speech, on the basis that you had to look at the reality of what was happening now in Ukraine. They were fighting for their existence and in such a situation you had to support them against the Russian invaders. However, the amendment was lost by about two to one and many of us felt that the weak position of the main motion would then pass. As the debate on further amendments proceeded, the weakness of the main motions position of avoiding any reference to self-determination and self-defence but just calling for solidarity with Ukraine, whatever that may mean in concrete terms, became clearer to many delegates. The final vote was a surprise. The main motion was rejected by a clear majority of the delegates. This left the NEU with no agreed position on the war in Ukraine. Both the StW position and the self-determination position had been defeated, which I think leaves the NEU districts free to decide their own positions on Ukraine. This loss by the supporters of the motion led to rather strange comments on social media, the supporters of the self-determination position were called war mongers and various comments of the ‘History will absolve us’ type were sent. However, some sort of unity was eventually restored when all the Conference delegates wore blue ‘Say it loud, Say it clear, Refugees are welcome here’ t-shirts in a massive photo-shoot.
Earlier, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, one Bridget Phillipson, gave a speech. She must have known the NEU position on Ofsted, passed yesterday, but she tried to talk about reforming Ofsted. This was a bit of a red rag to many delegates who heckled her and eventually there was a large walk out of delegates. The Shadow Secretary of State for Education gave no real commitments on funding, on working conditions or on assessment. In fact almost the only clear statements were that Ofsted would continue, although it might be modified a bit, and she would endeavour to spend more on the Early Years. It felt to many delegates that she was determined to stick to her prepared speech, she made no effort to respond to the heckling and just ploughed through her speech. Many delegates after the session thinking how are Starmer’s New Labour different from the Tories on education policy.
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The UK state is not unitary from the point of taxation. There is significant fiscal devolution – council tax and its equivalent is devolved to all four polities, and property sales taxes devolved in Cymru and Scotland. Scotland has significant influence over income tax rates and bands, but the ability to create new taxes is largely controlled by Westminster though a Tourist tax has been approved. Interestingly, Corporation Tax was devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Tories (largely to encourage it to match the very low rates in the 26 county Republic of Ireland state). However VAT, National Insurance and many other taxes are UK-wide (not just “Britain”) and controlled by Westminster.
The STUC has identified measures https://www.stuc.org.uk/news/news/stuc-launch-tax-proposals-to-save-scotlands-public-services/ under current devolution arrangements that could be used to tax wealth more by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Greens have in the last few days introduced an exemplary measure into the housing bill at Holyrood to remove the exemption on the monarch’s properties being taxed in Scotland (he owns 80), a symbolic gesture but not politically insignificant, and have proposed a new council tax band for mansions. The Scottish Socialist Party has long proposed removing the regressive council tax and replacing it with a redistributive Scottish Service Tax.
This is all in advance of the devolved Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026. Polls tell us voters in Cymru strongly support the extension of the fiscal powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament to Senedd Cymru, as a minimal demand, and also elect a new Senedd on a new PR system in May 2026.
The campaign for a wealth tax will therefore have a totally different character and demands in the different parts of “Britain” (which has not been a fiscal or economic unit for 225 years by the way). There are no Anglo-centric “one size fits all” fiscal solutions, even within the current form of the UK state.