The first election campaign I remember was 1974. My Dad took me out to “knock up” the Labour vote in our target seat of Pudsey (we lived near Leeds at the time and the candidate was the aptly named Mr Targett). I can’t remember whether it was February or October 1974 and I can’t remember whether I paid the faintest attention to who won the election (I was nine years old), but in retrospect there were some important lessons: that there is no substitute to local, personal campaigning, and, whatever my disagreements with my Dad, he always knew the best outcome was always a Labour victory.
Anyway, there is a general election on the way. I’ve been doing quite a few days around the country – as well as in other countries – over the last few months. There is a buzz on the Labour circuit. As the election gets closer our answers seem to be sharper and the Tories’ fuzzier and weaker.
But for the election itself – the first really important internet election perhaps – there is no alternative to a campaign blog. If the BBC can have dozens of blogs I’m allowed one too. It will be a bit different from my Foreign Office blog. Not that diplomats (any more) are “sent abroad to lie for their country”. But the constraints of government and diplomacy kept me out of political controversy. This will by definition be partisan, but I hope it is still readable.
It seems to me the Labour Party has three jobs in this campaign. To show how far Britain has come and take on the myth that our country is in decline. Remember wages of £1.50 an hour, winter crises in the NHS, outside loos in primary schools, section 28, declining overseas aid spending? They have all been changed by Labour in government.
We need also to show we have ideas for the future. Whether on the economy, climate change, social care or political reform, today’s challenges demand a government that increases people’s power over their lives and guarantees their security. That speaks directly to the Labour Party’s purpose and one we are uniquely placed to advance in a world that demands policy answers rooted in social justice, mutual responsibility and international cooperation.
And finally we need to show the sham claim that the Tory Party has “changed” for what it is. David Cameron’s claim to have modernised his party is exposed as entirely false when you survey their prospectus of inheritance tax cuts for the super-rich, immediate spending cuts, bringing back fox hunting and an assault on Europe . The change he offers would take Britain backwards.
This is what I will be talking to people about on the doorstep from now until the election. But I cannot visit as many seats as I would like, so I will also be phone banking to make sure Labour’s messages are getting out into communities and homes.
Through this site I hope you will join me. I will let you know where I plan to phone bank in advance and will ask as many of you as possible to phone people in the same constituency. I will blog about the kind of conversations I have had and what I have learnt. It would be great to hear from you too, so log on and post some comments if the mood takes you.
I know this work is being done already and I am not nearly the first. But I hope that this blog can make a small contribution to the work going on up and down the country. Please do also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Dmiliband.
Campaigning has changed in 36 years, but not the basic choice. Labour or Tory. We’ve got to have a conversation with the electorate that helps them to the right conclusion.
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