Posts tagged General Election
Vote Labour – my personal plea
May 6th
I’ve campaigned for Labour in every election since 1987. But this time is different. In every other election I hoped that Labour would win, I was disappointed, shocked, gutted when we didn’t win in 1987 and 1992. But that’s as far as it went.
But this time it’s different. This time it’s far more emotional and personal. Because this time I’m responsible for people.
- I’ve got a daughter who’s almost three and I’m sick to the pit of my stomach with fear for her future if the Tories win. But my fear isn’t just for her, it’s for every other child in the country whose lives will be blighted by the Tories.
- I’ve got a team of brilliant young people that I employ and am responsible for. I’m terrified for their future if the Tories win. I’m terrified how Tory economic policies will devastate small businesses and force thousands of us out of business, just like in the 80s. I don’t want my young people to suffer that trauma.
- I’ve got a father-in-law living in a great care home. I’m terrified what will happen to him if the Tories win. From Tory and Tory/Lib Dem councils around the country we’ve already seen how they deliberately attack the most vulnerable in society by closing homes and viciously cutting home care services.
Quite simply I’m terrified of the Tories and how they’ll govern to benefit the few, while the rest of the country can go to hell.
Growing up in the 80s I’ve had personal experience of just how bad it is to suffer under the misery of a Tory government. I remember:
- being taught in schools with classrooms where the roof leaked, where classrooms were Portacabins in the playground, where we didn’t have enough teachers.
- people waiting over a year for hospital appointments, not just weeks.
- when people were scared of the police who the Tories were trying to turn into a political tool to attack the miners and working people.
- when Tory ministers celebrated the fact that a pregnant woman was handcuffed to her hospital bed
- when people were losing their homes and jobs, because of extortionate 15% interest rates.
It scares me that young people I talk to don’t know just how terrible the Tories really are. They never lived through the sheer misery of a government with the core principles of selfishness and greed.
And the truth is even if you believe in Compassionate Cameron, it’s still the same old nasty Tory Party that he leads. Tony Blair was a true leader and took on Labour Party members to reclaim it and take it back to its founding principles, rejecting the left-wing doctrines that had polluted Labour’s original philosophies.
Cameron hasn’t done this. There can only be three reasons:
- Cameron is lying and doesn’t really believe his compassionate Conservatism, it’s just a ruse to seize power. I used to believe Dave and think he had changed, just not his party. Now, I’m not so sure. Maybe I’ve been conned by Cameron.
- Cameron is too scared to take on his own members. He doesn’t have the courage for the job. You have to ask if he can’t lead a political party, how can he lead a country?
- Cameron isn’t capable of taking on his own members. He’s just not bright enough. You have to ask if he can’t lead a political party, how can he lead a country?
So I urge you, if you do one thing today then vote to stop the Tories plunging Britain into misery.
Vote to ensure that the UK gets true electoral reform as advocated by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, not the gerrymandering, vote-rigging proposed by Cameron.
UPDATE: A few typos helpfully corrected by @karenbruce, my lesson is more haste less speed!
Gordon Brown’s standing ovation for barnstorming speech
May 3rd
Gordon Brown obviously believes in keeping the best till last. He’s just given a barnstorming speech to Citizens UK. He was greeted with massive applause as he entered and a standing ovation for the clear Labour policies he articulated.
UPDATE: Full video (via Political Scrapbook)
David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ just didn’t cut it. People who are really involved in community action and volunteering don’t want it.
What the Tories mean by ‘Big Society’ is abandoning the government’s responsibility to the most vulnerable in society, expecting community groups and charities to pick up the slack, because the Conservatives can’t be bothered and don’t think it’s important enough.
What Labour means by ‘Big Society’ is the government helping and facilitating community groups and charities to enable them and make it easier for them to achieve even more. It’s more than a subtle difference. The Tories are setting out to deliberately disadvantage the most vulnerable people in society who are the least able to take on the responsibilities of running their own schools, post offices and police. Meanwhile the privileged, who already have the most, will be able to grab even more as they ‘run’ their own services.
Tax cuts for millionaires now on Tory website
Apr 30th
You can have some great fun with Google Sidewiki. It let’s you add your own helpful information and explanations to websites.This means you can the truth about the Tories to their website – for anyone to see. You can share Sidewiki entries on Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and Google profiles.
To add your own exposes of the Tories, just install the Google Toolbar with Sidewiki and away you go. You can even highlight specific proposals on the site and add your own explanation of why it’s such a bad policy.
Leaders’ Debate live Qik video streaming
Apr 22nd
This evening I’m at at Leaders’ Debate party with Eddie Izzard and Hilary Benn. As usual I’ll be tweeting furiously during the debate and afterwards I plan to do some immediate live video streaming interviews.
You can watch them here on my Qik Live Channel:
I’ll be using a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 for the live video streaming and for reasons of transparency I’ve got to remind you that Sony Ericsson is a client of my company Wolfstar. For the technically minded amongst you it’s a Android phone, and IMHO (in my humble opinion the best available!)
Labour manifesto launch
Apr 12th
Labour’s manifesto launch is a bit different to what a lot of people were expecting. Usually general election manifestos are only bought and read by real political junkies*. But the problem with that is that most people just see what the media chooses to report, they don’t actually get to see the real policies free if media spin and distortion.
Labour’s innovation is to provide the manifesto in a multitude of different formats to suit a wide variety of needs. The most innovative is the film produced by Ridley Scott Associates and Saatchi & Saatchi which is ideal for sharing with friends and family. In just two minutes it gives people a real insight into Labour’s policy pledges in its manifesto.
For those who want more detail you can click through and see a series of other films on specific policy areas such as the economy and health. You can also click through to download PDFs of the actual manifesto. It’s in the PDFs that you get the policy detail that highlights how solid, serious and substantial Labour’s manifesto actually is. Douglas Alexander explained that the rationale behind the animated films was to allow voters to “paddle, swim and dive” into Labour’s manifesto.
Labour’s launch is about putting members and voters at the forefront. Before 1997 Peter Mandelson used to talk about winning the ‘air war’ and the ‘ground war’. The air war was the mainstream media, the ground war was pounding the streets talking to voters. Today it’s even more about the ground war. Except the ground war isn’t just on the streets, it’s online with voters and local party activists talking to each other.
In contrast to the Tories negative advertising campaigns Labour has deliberately chosen a positive theme, reflecting bright sunshine coming up over the horizon and a family looking forward to a future fair for all.
The creative manifesto isn’t just creative for the sake of it, but is also designed to reflect the importance of the creative and digital sector to the UK economy.
That’s why Labour isn’t relying on the broadcast and print media for the manifesto launch. The launch wasn’t introduced by a cabinet minister, but by Labour blogger Ellie Gellard. At the same time Labour is sharing the links to the films with party members so they can share them directly with friends, colleagues and family through email, social media and social networks.
Impressed as I am by Labour’s innovation and as new media as I am, I have to confess I’m disappointed that I won’t be walking down to WH Smith to buy all of the manifestos. Keeping an online video or PDF just isn’t the same.
DISCLOSURE: I did have a sneak preview of the manifesto.
* I used to have a collection of manifestos going back to 1979 which was the first election where I was really aware of and interested in politics (I was nearly 11).
XP: Also posted on A PR Guy’s Musings.
Labour’s party election broadcast – the road ahead
Apr 12th
Labour’s first party election broadcast – the road ahead
General election TV debates: Alan Johnson v. Chris Grayling
Feb 7th
Alan Johnson was on fine form on the Andrew Marr show this morning. Other politicians resort to hyperbole and pointless attacks on the opposition (some Labour MPs are as bad as the Tories and Lib Dems) but Alan is nearly always cool, confident and authentic.
Kerry McCarthy tweeted: “Never underestimate the seriousness of the British electorate says AJ. That’s why polls are tightening. How about AJ & Grayling debate?”
That’s exactly what the British public deserve. Debates between the main party leaders are an excellent start, but in a Parliamentary democracy aren’t enough. We’re not voting for a president, so we need to reflect the fact that we’re voting for a party and a leadership team.
The number of cabinet positions mean that it’s unrealistic to have debates between them all. But it would be possible to have debates between the holders of the main offices – Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary.
It’s doubtful the Tories would be for this as it’s one thing for them to risk Cameron against Brown, but if it’s Miliband v. Hague, Johnson v. Grayling or Darling v. Osbourne then it’s no contest. It would highlight just how weak and shallow the Conservatives really are. Not only can Cameron not trust his would be MPs, he can’t even trust his potential cabinet colleagues.
In the four great offices of state Labour has three potential leaders. The Tories have one leader, one failure and two no hopers.
Gordon must not go
Jan 3rd
Ask any of my friends and they’ll tell you how vehemently opposed I was to Gordon Brown becoming Labour Party leader. It wasn’t because I didn’t rate or like Brown. I rate him extremely highly. He’s the one you’d always want on your team. He’s the one you’d always ask for advice. He’s the one whose counsel you would treasure. It’s just that I never thought of him as a leader. A leader is someone you’ll trust and follow even if your own instincts say something else. A leader is a communicator. A leader is someone who inspires. Gordon isn’t that sort of leader.
But he is the leader that we’ve got. It’s far too late to regret our mistakes. Sheerman, Clarke and Pope need to accept that. We must rally around Gordon and fight to win. Because Labour can win. No matter how poor a leader Gordon is, he’s still a gigantic political figure who gave sterling service as chancellor. And he’s surrounded by cabinet colleagues who bar two or three would all be capable of stepping up and leading the Labour Party and the country. Contrast this with what the Conservatives have. Cameron is it. He’s the best they’ve got. He’s all they’ve got. Who have the Tories got to replace Cameron? The boy George? I hardly think so. William Hague is a possibility, probably the only possibility.
And how popular are the Tories under Cameron? The simple answer is that they aren’t. They might be leading in the polls, but by nowhere near enough. People aren’t making a positive choice in favour of the Conservatives. They’ve lost faith and turned away from the Labour Party.
Labour can still win the general election. But only if we present a clear vision for the future. It’s not enough simply to point to our record or what people would lose under the Tories. We need to offer them something more.
New decade, new year, new blog
Dec 31st
In March 2003 I became the first councillor in the UK to start a blog. That blog is now defunct, as it was very definitely a ‘councillor blog’ and not about national politics (as The Guardian made clear in Blogging for better bins). When I stood down as a councillor I let that blog die as I concentrated on my professional b usiness blog at A PR Guy’s Musings. I frequently reference political issues on my business blog, but usually within a public relations or communications context.
As we enter an election year I’ve increasingly wanted to be more political in my blogging, but haven’t been able to on my business blog as it’s directed at a different audience. That’s why I’ve started this new blog where I can talk about lots of the issues that really matter.
Guido Fawkes blogs that The Online Left Thinks 2010 Will Be Their Year and disagrees. I’m inclined to agree with Guido as I don’t think that any of the left-wing blogs will knock the right-wing supremos off their pedestals. However, it isn’t all about the blockbuster blogs. They are only part of the picture, what’s going to also make a difference is the myriad of smaller blogs and thousands of individuals on Twitter, Facebook and other social media and social networking platforms.
Guido also says:
“The left has to get the post-election civil war out of the way first before it re-groups. Given that the online left is way to the left of the electorate, there is a good chance that the Labour blogosphere will help consign the Labour Party to irrelevance for a good while.”
Personally I’m not a great believer in the left/right divide in the Labour Party, but it’s unlikely that any of the tribalists that do would put me on the left of the Labour Party. That’s part of my motivation for starting this blog. I’ve got things to say and the old-fashioned, out-dated structure of the Party isn’t up to modern political discourse (there’s a subject for a future blog post).
Guido’s prediction of a post-election civil war in the Labour Party assumes that we’re heading for a massive electoral defeat, but that’s not what I believe. I’m still in it to win it. But win or lose, there is a need for a massive debate in the Labour Party and I want to be ready.
