A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.
Stuart King has set up an excellent website - http://www.southernfront.org.uk/ - dedicated to Labour winning in the South of England.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 7:07 pm
Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012 and since 2020. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.
9 Comments:
Wasn't the only unlikely seat Labour held in the fifties either; T.W. Jones gained Meirionnydd in 1951, Labour continued to hold agricultural constituencies in Norfolk, while Gloucester and Northampton were reliable Labour seats.
Of course at the same time both seats in Salford were marginals and Labour were repeatedly defeated in places as unlikely as Rutherglen, Kirkdale and Wythenshawe.
It's just a little frustrating that we didn't manage to hold onto the former over the longterm while eventually picking up the latter.
8:32 pm, January 24, 2011
You're right about the desirability of "a full-time Organiser to run fundraising (paying for themselves)" in potentially winnable constituencies.
Without any full time local staff it's very hard for a party to have a strong presence. With no MPs and few local councillors in many counties across the south (and not even an MEP in the south west), we're in real danger of a spiral of decline in spite of new members (and maybe some voters) coming to us from the Lib Dems.
And it's drizzling, cold and still January...
12:14 pm, January 25, 2011
A very interesting article.
There was the agent in Enfield Southgate, I forget her name, but she was someone who was a great strategic thinker. She sensed that the seat could possibly change hands in 1997 and she was crucial to it happpening.
I bet a lot of people probably laughed when she suggested that it could change hands. If so, then she had the last laugh.
Her foresight had an enormous impact on politics in this country.
3:22 pm, January 25, 2011
It's worth noting that those North Kent seats were distinctly exceptional in the 1950s in staying Labour.
Otherwise our southern seats were limited to Falmouth and Camborne (presumably due to the mining connections), Plymouth and Southampton (presumably due to the docks), Bristol (the south's largest city bar London), generally industrial seats in the Thames Valley (notably Swindon and Oxford), a little bit of London over-spill, the East Anglian provincial cities of Ipswich and Norwich and some Norfolk seats where we were utterly dependent on the farm worker unions.
We didn't really expand outside that even in 1964 (bar a few marginal victories in Northamptonshire, which isn't technically South in this context). Even in 1966 gains in the south were sparser than further north.
We should learn the lessons of Faversham, but we shouldn't pretend a full-time organiser will help us expand beyond a few footholds in the south (or even stop us losing them - Cambridge had an organiser, a big membership and a first rate fundraising organisation in 2005, but that couldn't get close to saving it for us).
Most of the South has never been our territory, I'm afraid. I think the road is going to be a lot more difficult and long than anybody really wants to admit.
2:48 am, January 26, 2011
badger farm winchester
LD Brian Laming 894 (53.9%)
Conservative 604 (36.4%)
Labour 161 (9.8%)
Turnout 51.1%
LD hold.
significant increase for labour from 1%
12:12 am, January 28, 2011
in the early 1980s even under michael foot we held 2 out of 3 surrey cc seats in guildford
and by the end of the 80s 3 out of 3
a lot down to Councillor Bellamy and his wife has to be said
but also a good local party with active LPYS
Youth sections are vital a
12:14 am, January 28, 2011
Monmouth by election very rural and very few welsh
Huw Edwards excellent candidate and appealed to Libs ie PR
12:16 am, January 28, 2011
Looking at the list, a couple of very good (and popular) local MP's who lost their seats will not be able to restand because of all women shortlists.
I'm not convinced that will help us retake the seats
12:58 am, January 28, 2011
Mike
the Regional Parties consulted all affected defeated MPs.
We were told at NEC Organisation Committee that seats had only been designated AWS if the former (male) MP had indicated they did not want to re-stand there.
Luke
2:16 pm, January 28, 2011
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