A message to Go4th with...

Here via facebook is a message from Alistair Campbell:

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.

No Ifs, No Buts, Give up the Bonus

The Go4th campaign to win Labour a fourth term has a new press release from John Prescott on the huge bonuses that certain banks want to pay out to their executives despite having to be bailed out at the taxpayer's expense:

Prescott launches online grassroots campaign to stop bank bonuses


John Prescott today (Sunday Feb 8th) called on people to join him in an online grassroots campaign to stop RBS and other banks that have been bailed out by the Government giving out bonuses.

Speaking to supporters at a rally in Manchester this morning he warned RBS, which is 68% owned by the Government: "We are all shareholders now and the shareholders demand you give up the bonus."


Mr Prescott is using Facebook to mobilise people into showing their anger against the bailed out banks. He already has more than 2,000 people signed up to his on going campaign called 'No Ifs No Buts, Pass On The Cut."

The campaign's aims were to get banks to pass on the interest rate cuts to customers and to turn the Post Office into a People's Bank.

Now the campaign is focusing on stopping the bonuses.

Mr Prescott is calling on people to send in their case studies and campaign ideas to his Facebook group No Ifs No Buts, to stop the bonuses.

Today in a speech to campaign supporters in Manchester Town Hall he called on those angry with proposed bonuses to join him in the fight.

He said: "This week President Obama made it clear to the US banks that it was the taxpayer that saved them. Some of you may have read my recent blog where I showed great admiration in him standing up to the bankers and proposing the executive pay cap.

"He has also been very successful in creating an online army to support his fiscal stimulus package through Congress - and we should use that people power here.

"We must utilise these same online grassroots tactics to force these greedy and indifferent banks that the taxpayer bailled out to give up their bonuses.

"We know that RBS, in which we own 68% of the shares after giving them £20billion of our money , is considering handing out £1b of it in bonuses to their bankers and traders. This is morally and economically outrageous.

"This is raw capitalism and this country rejects it. We don't want to hear that RBS has to pay out the bonuses because of 'contractual obligations.' If we hadn't bailed them out to save homeowners and businesses, their contracts would be worth nothing as they'd be out of work.

"So I'm calling on everyone who feels outraged by this to join me in the battle. It doesn't matter about what party you support, let's join together and stop this payout.

" We are all shareholders now and we the shareholders demand RBS give up the bonus. No Ifs, No Buts."

People are being encoraged to leave their support on the campaign Facebook page - No Ifs No Buts at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41481071905 or leave comments at www.gofourth.co.uk

I'm going to higlight one particular excerpt of that (emphasis mine):

"We know that RBS, in which we own 68% of the shares after giving them £20billion of our money , is considering handing out £1b of it in bonuses to their bankers and traders. This is morally and economically outrageous.

That's right, RBS wants to give £1,000,000,000 of our money to the very same people whose reckless trading to led to us having to bail them out in the first place.

Phone banking made easy

Now you can help Labour win a fourth term from the comfort (or discomfort if you're in Hillhead) of your own home. Labour have just launched a virtual phonebank, and from what I've seen of it so far it appears to be fairly easy to use with a simple interface.

Labour have this to say:

Labour today launched an online virtual phone bank - which will allow our members to call voters from their own homes and enter the results of their calling directly into the phone bank online.

The phone bank is a key way of empowering our supporters to campaign for Labour, and listen to the views of the public, without having to leave their own homes.

Douglas Alexander MP, Labour's General Election co-ordinator, said:

"We have taken on board the lessons of the Obama campaign and the key aim of our web strategy is to give our supporters the tools they need to campaign for us both online and offline.

"As one example of this, the online virtual phone bank will allow our members to call voters from their own homes and enter the results of their calling directly into our database.

"In contrast the Tories just don't get online campaigning - despite being well-funded they seem to have wasted a whole lot of money on gimmicks."


Watch John Prescott talk about the new virtual phone bank here >>>>

If you're a member of the Labour party you can access the phone bank and start making calls here >>>>

Voter outreach is quite possibly the most important aspect of electioneering, and one of the main elements in individual electoral success. Especially given the media's obsession with only pumping out stories of woe and doom we Labour supporters have to take the responsibility for making sure our message is heard. If we're serious about a fourth term we've got to show it, and we can do that by exploiting tools like this new phone banking service to their maximum potential. If we do that we can win, if not...



Do you really want that?

Communication

[Video from Pharyngula at ScienceBlogs.]

I think this video serves as a reminder that in science, as in politics, it is surprisingly easy to lose ground that was so difficult to gain.

For example in Gaza, years of political progress can be set back by just a few weeks of violence, and in California rights can be taken away by a popular vote.

But it important to remember that progress can be made and preserved, a good example in the Middle East would be Israel's relationship with Egypt. For decades they were constantly on the brink of war, and at war on several occasions, but now they have relatively reasonable diplomatic relations. That is the kind of progress we need.

The title of this post is communication; communication lies at the heart of how we can solidify the beneficial evolution of society. The ability to tolerate and cohabit with one another is at its core based on the ability of people to empathise and understand one another. To understand why we act in the way that we do, and the reasons why the things we cherish are important to us. That holds true most of all for the rights and freedoms that we are so privileged to hold.

[If you don't have time to watch the whole thing go to 4:30. It's at this point that he makes a point that I would like to emphasise.]



His basic point, for those who haven't watched the video, is that because the Scholars of the Great Library did not communicate to their ideas and achievements to the populace there was no-one willing to defend their ideas when the mob rose up.

We, as Labour supporters, need to learn this lesson. No matter how fine our achievements in office, no matter how many benefit from the minimum wage or a swift and strong reaction to recession, if we do not show the electorate what we have done for them when the Tory mob is at our door there will be no-one to stand in their way.

We must protect our ideals and the progress we have made, and we can only do that by making people believe that out ideals and achievements are worth protecting.

A Message From John Prescott

This was sent to in a message sent out to all of the members of the "NO IFS, NO BUTS - PASS ON THE CUT" Facebook group. it was originally a blog post on Labourhome.

This Christmas 340 people face losing their jobs in my Hull constituency. Whilst this sadly isn’t uncommon across the country at the moment, what’s made me very angry is that is was entirely preventable and the result of a bank’s greed.

Atlas Holiday Homes has a long and proud history – a successful firm that for 30 years had a credit facility with Barclays.

That was until the bank decided to take it away even though the company had a full order book way into March next year.

Which is why I was furious to hear Barclays Chief Executive John Varley tell the BBC that firms and households will have to wait another two years before bank lending goes back to normal.

Well it's a damn good thing we didn't wait up to two years to bail out the banking sector to the tune of £37b, isn’t it?

That’s why I started my Facebook campaign ‘No Ifs No Buts – Pass on the Cut’ to pressure the banks to pass on the interest rate cuts in full for customers and businesses.

Many of these banks were bailed out by this Government but Barclays preferred to sort out their own refinancing package with Abu Dhabi and Qatari investors.

Mr Varley said at the time: “Our ability to do what our shareholders would expect of us would be compromised if Barclays was nationalized.”

Which means they wanted to carry on giving out healthy dividends and wallet-busting bonuses. Last year, they posted profits of £7 billion.

But on 30 August 2007, Barclays was forced to borrow £1.6bn from the Bank of England sterling standby facility, which is made available as a last-resort when banks are unable to settle their debts to other banks at the end of daily trading.

Yes we bailed out Barclays by giving them a credit facility! And what did Mr Varley get last year? A bonus of £1.45 million whilst Barclay’s President got ten times as much - £14.8m

Atlas Holiday Homes can’t wait two years for banks to recapitalize, Mr Varley. They’ll go under if you uphold this ridiculous and shortsighted decision.

And you wonder why banks are facing a PR crisis? It’s not a case of saying sorry and admitting to the sins of the past. It’s about doing what is morally and economically right and passing on the interest cuts in full and increasing lending.

This Monday, Atlas will meet with the administrators and the council to see what can be done. All three Hull MPs have also written to Peter Mandelson to make him aware of the situation and ask him for help.

So in the spirit of Xmas I call on you Mr Varley and Barclays to do the decent thing and save Atlas, give them back their credit facility and make 340 Hull families very happy.

So No Ifs, No Buts – get lending!

You can join our 'No Ifs, No Buts, Pass on the Cut' facebook group here.

I agree with this, the sheer arrogance of the banks infuriates me. We have to take extraordinary steps to stabilise the economy and clean up their mess but they think that they can just go on with business as usual. This is unacceptable and we should use the fact that we have the whip hand right now to make some positive changes.

I Make a Prediction

Over the last year I have been telling everyone that would listen that the Labour Party would win the next election by at least 31 seats. I have been laughed at, told not to be stupid and reminded that miracles don't happen, but as I have told members of the Parliamentary Labour Party trust me I know how we can do it.

So here it is the strategy to win the election by at least 31 seats, its simple really GET THE VOTE OUT, REMIND THEM WHAT THE TORIES ARE LIKE oh aye and govern effectively.

Now on the first part people no longer appear to be scared to say that they are voting Labour and that is thanks to the latter. And I have to say who needs to remind the country as to what a Tory government would be like as they are just doing that themselves (so thanks David, George and Damien).

But its not just that it is also based on a falling Libdem vote and that is happening as well so I stand by my prediction, but what has led me to posting it here in the blog, well that is thanks to a Comres opinion poll which puts Labour 1% behind the Tories and gives us a majority of 10 seats but even better than that is the lead was a 1% lead for labour it would win by Wait for it 32 seats so OK not my 31 but not bad for the big guy.

The Labour Blogosphere: Blogorama I

I believe that Labour is the best party to lead Britain. I'm sure that a lot of people reading this agree with me. However, not everyone does. That's why communication of ideas and campaigning are so important in politics. The ability to reach out and affect the thinking of voters, and to persuade people to support you is key to any political campaign. During Barack Obama's year long campaign for the White House he was supremely successful at building up a grassroots network of supporters and fundraisers using the internet.

At the next general election, and especially as time goes by at future elections, the internet will play a far greater role in informing people about the policies of the Labour party, what we have achieved in office, and what we plan to do in the future. And that is what this post is about; using the internet to transmit ideas, mostly via blogging but also through e-mail and video.

At the Labour homepage you can access membersnet the homepage for members of the Labour Party. Here you can browse a directory of members' blogs. I think that the widespread involvement of members in actively discussing politics is something to be encouraged. So every Wednesday from now I intend, conditions permitting, to introduce the readers here to a new Labour blog. This new weekyl segment is to be called Blogorama.

For the inaugural Blogorama we are going to visit the remote, rarely travelled reaches of darkest West Lancashire, specifically the town of Bickerstaffe. The blog in question is the Bickerstaffe Record, which is written by the local Labour Councillor, a man whose supreme intellect and refined tastes are shown by the fact that he has read posts and commented on this very blog. ("One month on" and "Why do we do it?" for those who are curious.)

In particular I wish to draw your attention to a very good post he did in the last few days about unemployment figures. A topic which may seem very dry, but is of the utmost importance not just to those who have unfortunately lost their jobs, or are in danger of unemployment, due to the current global economic problems, but also to those of us that wish to refute the untruths propagated by the Tories and others. Specifically that the current economic situation is as bad as, or getting to be as bad as, it got during Thatcher's time in office.

"IT ISN’T! THE WAY UNEMPLOYMENT IS MEASURED HAS CHANGED, roughly by the same proportions that we changed from inches to centimetres, but which didn’t mean we suddenly got people who were 20 feet tall."

That quote from the blog links back to a previous post he did on the subject which explains what the problem is with regards to the reporting of unemployment figures:

"The BBC, then, carries as it’s headline figure the unemployment total (end of September) of 1.82 million. Responsibly enough, it also quotes the latest claimant count at 98,900, but this latter figure is likely to get less coverage in days to come as the media focuses in on the higher figure.

It’s important first to make the difference between the two figures clear. The unemployment figure (1.82 million) is based on the International Labour Organisation definition, which the incoming Labour government said it would use when it came into power in 1997. It is measured by the Labour Force Survey of (from memory 57,000)households, and even though it is based on a sample and there open to samplinig differences, it is generally reckoned to give a more accurate representation of unemployment because it measures the number of people who ‘want to work, are available to work, and are actively seeking employment’, whatever their benefit status (including those not claiming benefit).

As such, it is generally considered more accurate than the ‘claimant count’, which is simply the number of people seeking unemployment-related benefit, as well as being comparable internationally. For a summary of the differences between the two measures see here.

The important point is that the Conservatives used the less accurate claimant count when they were in government. Thus, when we talk about the ‘1 in 10′ jobless figure of the mid 1980s, we are referring to 3 million people on the claimant count alone. The ILO figure was much higher."

The Tories would like people to believe that Labour's strong record on the economy (In large part thanks to our extremely capable Chancellors) is not as solid as it seems. They aim to do this by their manipulation of statistics to make labour's record seem as dismal as their own, but as this post so ably demonstrated that just isn't the case. One of the major differences between Labour and the Tories as I noted in the post yesterday is the manner in which we react to unemployment and insecurity in the job market. We do something about it, the Tories simply close the shutters and sit snugly in the warm whilst those left in the cold have to fend for themselves.

Recently when John Prescott was in Aberdeen he gave an excellent speech about campaigning which was attended by members of the Labour Club. One of the things he stressed was getting the truth out about Labour's record in government. That's what this post from the Bickerstaffe Record does. It may not have the readership of a national newspaper but it is directed and engages with local people. All we need is a blogger in each constituency providing direct and accurate information about all that Labour has achieved and all we can achieve and to refute Tory and SNP misinformation, and we can make sure that we are ready for 21st Century campaigning, and we can make sure that we are ready to Go 4th and win again.

The Tories say recession is good for you!

For those who don't know there is a Facebook group (link in the title) called Labour Campaign for a Fourth Term: Go Fourth (pretty self-explanatory I think). I would urge anyone reading this who has a Facebook to join up and show your support for a 4th term. As a member of the group you'll get regular updates from members of the Go 4th team such as this message, sent today, from John Prescott about the callous attitude the Tories have to the people of the UK:

Hello,

I had to share this with you to show that the Tories haven't changed. They're still the same old heartless Thatcherites who said there was no such thing as society.

Tory Health Spokesman Andrew Lansley - the man who frighteningly could be running our NHS in less than 20 months - has actually written an article on the Tory Party blog stating the following:

"On many counts, recession can be good for us. People tend to smoke less, drink less alcohol, eat less rich food and spend more time at home with their families."

Absolutely remarkable! These people never suffered the full heartless economic impact of the Tory Do Nothing strategy during the 80s and 90s recessions.

You may remember what Lamont said in 1992, with Cameron at his side.

"If higher unemployment is the price we have to pay in order to bring inflation down, then it is a price worth paying."

And John Major said "If it's not hurting, it's not working" – And he was a moderate Tory!

They've even dug up that old 1992 Tax Bombsell poster which may have helped them win the election, but was at the cost of 3 million unemployed and caused a great deal of damage to the roof of the public services.

As I said yesterday, there's clear water between our parties now.

Intervene for the good of the country and its hard working citizens or do nothing.

So do me a favour - forward this email onto your friends. Let them know how heartless these people really are and get them to join us on this Facebook Group.

Take care and remember to Go Fourth. I can’t wait to campaign even more!

JP

An absolutely spot on article, these quotes exemplify the Tories' attitudes. They have no idea what is means to struggle, for them a recession means cutting back on a few luxuries. They won't be counting every penny to try and stretch the weekly budget to cover enough food for their families, but that doesn't mean that they can't imagine what it would be like. And yet, they don't. They just don't, because they don't care about anyone apart from people like them. And that is why I will never, ever, vote Tory.