When I moved to the area, I thought it would be fun to get involved with my local Labour Party. I wrote to a number of councillors offering to help wherever I could, and mentioned that I had a background in fundraising and events management. After a few weeks, I still hadn’t heard back and decided to approach my local [...]
The somewhat surprising news from one constituency is that people are joining the party again, a contrast with the common view of the continuing decline in membership. One activist has recruited 10 new members (against a target of 50! By the by, how useful is that target? Has he failed or has he succeeded? Is he more or less motivated? [...]
Too much precious time is wasted at local Party meetings on inward-looking and anachronistic bureaucracy. Masquerading as internal democracy, it bears almost no relation to the communities outside who need our support. We need to get out there, get relevant, and get real.
Since I joined the Labour party, the only thing I’ve been asked to do during campaigns is deliver leaflets. It feels like a big waste of time and it must put a lot of people off getting involved. If we want to attract new members we need to get them involved in inspiring campaigns, not use them as unpaid postmen.
This is a new section of the Labour Values website. Please send us your stories.
Labour in Lewisham East was faced with a peculiarly well-funded Liberal Democrat campaign. Ultimately their challenge was seen off, and a healthy 6216 majority secured, by two factors. Campaigning for a general election began two years earlier – obviously not at the same intensity as in 2010, but all branches within the CLP campaigned with renewed vigour from 2008 onwards. [...]
“We must seize the chance of this leadership election to renew the Labour Party from the ground up and re-engage with the communities we are elected to serve” writes Ed Balls for Labour values.
During the election campaign, each and every poll showed Labour losing Aberdeen South, and yet, on the night, Labour’s majority increased from 1348 to 3506, with a 36.53% share of the vote, on an increased turn out of 67.2%. When asked how she accounts for her re-election, the answer Anne Begg, the MP for Aberdeen South, gives is, “13 years [...]
Labour now has a rare opportunity to build a new thriving base of support, enabling it to develop both an effective and inspiring governing alternative and to win the next election. The key is to understand and harness the dynamics of self-organisation and to concentrate on creating networks between and within different communities. Events, such as electoral victory, are the [...]
I visited the constituency of Liverpool Wavertree for a couple of days during the general election campaign to help out, and was very encouraged by what I saw. Like many seats, Wavertree had been Labour since 1997 but faced a new threat in 2010, with the Lib Dems making it their key North West target. Things did not go as [...]