Sunday, January 21, 2007
In praise of Labour councillors
Councillor's are very often the people actually keeping the party going. MP's simply don't have the time to do the fantastic job that Labour councillor's can do. Many are full time politicians with electorates much smaller than parliamentary constituency's, they get to every community event going and you know when people say such and such knows everyone, sometimes this is an exageration, but councillors at there best really do know more about there local communities than anyone else.
Jon Cruddas has got some research out which shows that our councillor base is smaller than at any time since 1978 and you know that happend the year after. Now we are in a third term Labour government we are into our third round of mid term loses. That is the said reality of government they may vote you in in Westminster but no sooner have MP's got their bums on the green benches than the electorate turn and start to vote out the councillors of the same party that they had just voted into national office 18 months before.
It doesn't have to be this way though. For instance in Manchester at the last local election Labour actually picked up four seats from the Lib Dems when they had hoped to gain control of the council. Effective target wards, good candidates, well run campaigns based on a great Labour run council can win elections convincingly, even with the "help" of national government. That is not to say that nationally the party hasn't been a great benefit for the city because it has, it's just not all the voters seem to be so inclined. They must read the daily mail or something.
What would really help though would be Jon Cruddas running the party machine as he understands the importance of all of this. Now you can have the air war in the media but really if you want to hold the territory you have to engage in the ground war as well and this is all about communities. Most people are cynical about the media and especially about "politicans" that they have never met. But meeting politicians be they MP' or councillors breeds trust, well usually anyway, and earning the trust of people will be key to winning peoples votes. Having a strong Labour councillor base is not only vital for individual communities up and down the country but also for the direction of the nation because in the next election we are going to need all the help that we can get to win. There is hardly a better resource than thousend of politically engaged people passionate about their communities who understand the benefits that having a Labour government brings. ¶ 2:54 pm
Jon Cruddas has got some research out which shows that our councillor base is smaller than at any time since 1978 and you know that happend the year after. Now we are in a third term Labour government we are into our third round of mid term loses. That is the said reality of government they may vote you in in Westminster but no sooner have MP's got their bums on the green benches than the electorate turn and start to vote out the councillors of the same party that they had just voted into national office 18 months before.
It doesn't have to be this way though. For instance in Manchester at the last local election Labour actually picked up four seats from the Lib Dems when they had hoped to gain control of the council. Effective target wards, good candidates, well run campaigns based on a great Labour run council can win elections convincingly, even with the "help" of national government. That is not to say that nationally the party hasn't been a great benefit for the city because it has, it's just not all the voters seem to be so inclined. They must read the daily mail or something.
What would really help though would be Jon Cruddas running the party machine as he understands the importance of all of this. Now you can have the air war in the media but really if you want to hold the territory you have to engage in the ground war as well and this is all about communities. Most people are cynical about the media and especially about "politicans" that they have never met. But meeting politicians be they MP' or councillors breeds trust, well usually anyway, and earning the trust of people will be key to winning peoples votes. Having a strong Labour councillor base is not only vital for individual communities up and down the country but also for the direction of the nation because in the next election we are going to need all the help that we can get to win. There is hardly a better resource than thousend of politically engaged people passionate about their communities who understand the benefits that having a Labour government brings. ¶ 2:54 pm
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Agree but Manchester is a different situation. Its solid labour to start off with. Secondly it has been taken back city wide which reinvigorates CLPs.
One place that we had massive losses where I went and campaigned was in Bury. Its just not that easy to win seats back in marginals where the national situation is unfavourable. Of couse u gotta try; but it is really hard.
One place that we had massive losses where I went and campaigned was in Bury. Its just not that easy to win seats back in marginals where the national situation is unfavourable. Of couse u gotta try; but it is really hard.
"Its solid labour to start off with."
Withingon has gone Tory, Labour, Lib Dem. but your right about the rest.
Withingon has gone Tory, Labour, Lib Dem. but your right about the rest.
Cruddas for Gen Sec then? Or for Chair? He is arguably auditioning for those jobs rather than the one which hopefully will be advertised shortly. What will Cruddas bring to the cabinet and NEC tables? What policies will he be promoting or supporting compared to his very-tolerant-of-Blairism set of crunch votes to date - barring Fees?
Also despite Addle's points we still have significantly less seats than we had at the start of 2003 and still have less than we had at the start of 2004. We're on the way back against the trend because we are working hard and working smart.
Less of the Bury anecdotes please.
Also despite Addle's points we still have significantly less seats than we had at the start of 2003 and still have less than we had at the start of 2004. We're on the way back against the trend because we are working hard and working smart.
Less of the Bury anecdotes please.
Manchester as a whole is labour. Withington is labour/lib dem. The tory vote will collapse at the next General election.
Chris - 2003 labour was slaughtered everwhere cos of Iraq, I don't see it as being a reflection on our performance as a whole. As for Bury its somewhere really important because it provides vital indicators as to whether New Labour was a flash in the pan or whether we really are a party of Government.
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Chris - 2003 labour was slaughtered everwhere cos of Iraq, I don't see it as being a reflection on our performance as a whole. As for Bury its somewhere really important because it provides vital indicators as to whether New Labour was a flash in the pan or whether we really are a party of Government.
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