Marsha has already blogged on the excellent Public Service Not Private Profit fringe meeting, and General Secretary Dave Prentis' speech. So I won't repeat her comments.

Currently Francis Prideaux from St Mary's Paddington is moving an excellent amendment to the NEC's motion on the economy. Francis.makes the excellent point that the government is not in favour of privatising everything. As the Northern Rock debacle showed, while they are privatising profits they are determined to nationalise the costs and the losses. Francis' amendment points out that the Labour conference already has agreed policies with the support of Unison which would turn that agenda on its head. The question, of course, is what do we do to get those policies implemented.

Several speakers get applause for referencing the GMB decision to restrict donations to Labour MPs unless they speak up for the union's policies. The amendment is passed.

The question of what we do with our political fund is central. There appears to be increasing support among delegates for a more selective approach, targetting our union's money to those MPs and candidates who would speak and vote for, not against, union policy. However, the union's own rules make such decisions the domain of the APF conference - which is not until next month.

That we could do such a thing illustrates why those unison members who argue for breaking the link with Labour are wrong. As the current speaker has just said, using the Labour link to reverse the government's current agenda is the best way of avoiding a Tory government, which would be even worse.