Dear Go Fourth
I’m in Norwich to see Burnley play Norwich City at Carrow Road.
We’re unbeaten in our last five matches – won three, drawn two – so I’m optimistic of a good result for the Clarets against the Canaries. After all, we’re in a good position for the play-offs and we’ve also had good cup runs this season, beating Chelsea, Fulham and Arsenal in the Carling Cup, before being (unjustly) knocked out by Spurs after playing our hearts out. Next month we play Arsenal again at the Emirates, having got to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
You may be wondering why I’m telling you how Burnley are doing right now.
I want to draw a comparison between football and politics. If the odds are steeply against you, if everybody seems to think the team opposing you are more likely to win, if their supporters in the away end are taunting your team and talking your manager, your players and you and your fellow supporters down, just look around you and reflect on a few things:
Teams can win against the odds. Burnley proves odds are wrong, time and again.
Likelihoods are not certainties. Things can change in 90 minutes, just as things can change from one game to another, or one season to the next.
Taunts are noise. Ignore them.
If people want only to talk down your team, or the town or city it’s at the heart of, that’s because they have nothing else to offer. As the old saying goes, the empty vessel makes the most noise. The Tories are an empty vessel.
In politics, as in football, confidence is key. Optimism is also key, and so is focus. You won’t enthuse a voter, or win over a new supporter for your team, unless you are confident, optimistic and focused, even when the polls - or the goals – are not in your favour.
In politics, as in football, unexpected things happen. Things can turn round in your team’s favour in moments. But the single biggest factor in keeping players’ spirits up during a tough match is the supporters.
Without vocal support, the players wouldn’t be able to raise their game and pull off those sudden, brilliant things they sometimes do to retrieve a situation and win by the final whistle.
Anyway, talking of whistles, it’s time to blow mine and kick off your to-do list this week.
1. I’m guest editing the New Statesman in March. I want your ideas for a piece on what should be in the next manifesto – see my blog and leave your comments:
http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php?id=18
2. Set aside an hour this week to do some phoning on Labour’s fantastic new system:
http://www.gofourth.co.uk/hello_love
3. First talking point: ask people you meet what they think of the Tories being substantially funded by bankers.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/16/probe-shows-tories-in-the-pocket-of-bankers-exclusive-115875-21127412/
4. Second talking point: Ask them what they think of JP’s campaign to stop bankers getting huge bonuses.
http://www.gofourth.co.uk/its_a_93_victory_for_people_power
5. Catch up with what’s happening in local politics via your local paper. Many of them now have websites.[Edit: e.g. Anne Begg] If your local Labour politicians are being attacked, write a letter to the paper to support them.
I said I’d report back on the five tasks you all suggested for me, and which I’ll be getting stuck into in the week ahead.
So far, the ones I’ve chosen are:
1. Get a souvenir programme signed by Alex Ferguson for a Labour fundraiser.
2. Write a handy guide about David Cameron, for use on the doorstep.
3. Write a handy guide about the Lib Dems, for use on the doorstep.
4. Start planning a Go Fourth rally and events for Labour Party conference.
5. Do two hours of telephone canvassing for marginal constituencies.
There’s one more.
6. Convince Mark Bennett, who is a Labour councillor in Lambeth as well as a Go Fourth organiser, to shave his beard off. This is an ongoing campaign and has even inspired a Facebook group here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=78353060960&ref=ts
That’s all for now. We’ve all got our to-do lists for the week ahead. Remember – confidence, optimism and focus.
Yours Going Fourth
Alastair
www.alastaircampbell.org
www.gofourth.co.uk
I like the football analogy he cooked up. A lot of the criticism we've received lately as a party has nothing to do with our policies, but is caused by the desire of people to have someone to blame for the current problems. Since we're in power a lot of people have targeted Labour for criticism, this despite the fact that a Tory government would be facing the same problems (and probably doing nothing to alleviate the unemployment and financial insecurity caused by them), and that every the government of every other large economy followed in Gordon Brown's footsteps to a large degree. Gordon Brown did a great job as Chancellor, and he's taken firm and decisive action throughout this period of financial instability. We must not let people forget that.
Labour have been taking a lot of flak which I think is important to counter. A large deal of criticism is coming directly or indirectly from the tabloids, who are ardently anti-Labour. What the tabloids do best is repeating a meme or story, recently a lot of anti-Brown tripe, until it becomes so prolific that it seems true (A tactic much admired by one Joseph Goebbels). By repeating anti-Brown stories they create an impression of popularity which feeds into the opinion of the readers of the tabloids. Unfortunately a large number of people are informed about politics by reading tabloids, so this effect can be very damaging to our election chances. For this reason I think we should do as much as we can to campaign for a fourth term and to follow Alistair's five suggestions:
1. I’m guest editing the New Statesman in March. I want your ideas for a piece on what should be in the next manifesto – see my blog and leave your comments:
http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php?id=18
2. Set aside an hour this week to do some phoning on Labour’s fantastic new system:
http://www.gofourth.co.uk/hello_love
3. First talking point: ask people you meet what they think of the Tories being substantially funded by bankers.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/16/probe-shows-tories-in-the-pocket-of-bankers-exclusive-115875-21127412/
4. Second talking point: Ask them what they think of JP’s campaign to stop bankers getting huge bonuses.
http://www.gofourth.co.uk/its_a_93_victory_for_people_power
5. Catch up with what’s happening in local politics via your local paper. Many of them now have websites.[Edit: e.g. Anne Begg] If your local Labour politicians are being attacked, write a letter to the paper to support them.
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