I See A Little Silhouetto Of A Party...

Oh dear...

The UK Labour Party is in trouble. 11 years in power have resulted in great steps forward for the country and provided considerable reserves of experience for the party, but both appear to be tiring of each other. I would consider myself a reasonably pragmatic lefty - I am no friend of Campbell or Chomsky - but I am a social democrat and thus find my sensibilities broadly aligned with the Labour Party (one thing is for certain, I could not cope with a Cameron Cabinet.) I was therefore heartened to discover that an Obama inspired attempt at grassroots mobilisation was underway - with a specific focus on new media and a new generation of party supporters. Such an attempt would seem to provide precisely what Labour's lacking - direction and an outlet for tapping the deep passion of party members. As the New Statesman stated last Autumn:

"...for all the backbiting no one [in caucus] is offering an intellectually inspiring new political idea."

So surely the grassroots of the social democratic movement, who have been pushed aside by Blair's New Labour schmoozing of big business and foreign donors, could have something to offer...


I did wonder, however, why it had taken me so long to find out about this campaign - 'Go 4th'. Ironically, for a campaign designed to permeate the blogosphere and Facebook - finding new supporters through new means - I found out by watching the mainstream media (the Daily Politics Show) only this week. Back in September '08, a special edition of the New Statesman titled "The Battle for Labour - How to Save the Party" included an article that set out the manifesto of 'Go 4th', penned by none other than John Prescott. Further inspection of the article reveals that the two figures spearheading the campaign are John Prescott and Alastair Campbell... and suddenly I realised why it had taken me, someone with an ear well and truly pressed to the ground, almost five months to discover such a movement. The only excuse for this selection of 'advocates' would be if the entire thing was concocted by them personally. But oh no. The 'Go 4th' website reveals it is "Promoted by Ray Collins, General Secretary, the Labour Party on behalf of the Labour Party". Why, oh why would anybody in their right mind think that Prescott (political heavy-weight with limited tact, now put out to grass) and Campbell (vilified, cynical destroyer of social democratic values and good process) would inspire large grassroot support, let alone attract new, young members and their fresh ideas?

Hardly...

The campaign is supposedly based on Obama's unprecedented success - in both it's bottom up and web-centric approach. However, the photograph that accompanied the 'Go 4th' manifesto in the New Statesman sums up all that is wrong about this desperate lunge for support. Far from the simple yet inspiring publicity shots of Obama - a man who is so starkly in contrast with established political norms and who tapped an overwhelming demand for change - the Labour photo shows middle-aged, white (and frankly tired) looking members of the ruling party in what appears to be a contrived reference to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody video! One of the few redeeming features I can see is the presence of Glenys Kinnock. She has been a very powerfully positive force in Europe and an awesome intellect, but even I will concede what she possesses in intellectual prowess (and pedigree) she lacks in charisma - brilliant for running a campaign but hardly a face to launch 1000 leafleters...

Okay... so there was one bad (quite shockingly bad) photo but a campaign is built on more than a photo, right? Obama was a great face but his campaign also mobilised thousands of supporters and his soaring rhetoric, backed by immense intellectual power, kept the movement growing at an incredible pace. 'Go 4th' must have quite a web presence and is fully utilising the Labour Party's existing list of supporter contact details... right? Well, no. They have a website, with a frequently updated blog, and a Facebook page but that's about the extent of it. A solid base to work from and a useful platform from which to launch a more extensive effort once the election campaign begins in earnest? Well, no. For a campaign that cites Obama as a seminal influence and tutor, it has been a very poor student. The website is decidedly average and includes almost none of the essential features of the Obama campaign. www.barackobama.com provided a hub through which volunteers throughout the country could liaise, unite and share ideas. www.gofourth.co.uk is essentially a glorified Prescott blog, to which Campbell occasionally contributes. It does not have any detail of policy, it has no campaign materials beyond a .pdf poster (seemingly designed on Microsoft Paint by an 11 year old - see above) and the only real 'get involved/ get mobilised' feature is an option to submit your email address to receive regular email updates - hardly revolutionary stuff. And to top it all off, my casual sweep revealed no sign of beloved Glenys...

In fairness, there are reasonably frequent video postings (by Prescott though, which practically undermines any efficacy of message) and comments on the blogs are answered frequently and in detail - but I think that can be attributed more to the scarcity of comments rather than any particular dedication of Prescott.


I could be called picky and spoilt in terms of political web contact (after all Obama had over 90 full time internet dedicated staff) especially when a general election may not be for over a year... but frankly an energising campaign to mobilise supporters needs to be a real step up. If 'Go 4th' wants to engage young, web savvy volunteers it needs to be of the high standard that the demographic expects. It also needs to begin early and gain momentum (Obama's marathon race began over two years before the election.) And this website is not just average - it's really poor. The colour scheme is grey and beige and the text is not even formatted properly (half is cut off when viewing the page on both safari and firefox browsers.) Compared to Obama this is shocking! The message conveyed (if the viewer can find it) also needs to be genuinely inspiring, not just the standard stump speech, copy and paste jobs of almost every MP in the country's websites.

I'm all for a Labour 4th term but this 'campaign' seems to reflect the wider public perception of the party - tired and incompetent. The party really needs to get some hunger for another term in office, the Tories have been throwing everything at wooing undecided voters and "decontaminating the brand", if Labour doesn't put in some effort they frankly don't deserve another chance. There is a really positive message to get out - Labour has great achievements to herald and the Tories will be a really shaky pair of hands for the country. Cameron is the inexperienced and incompetent leader so why does the public think it is the men with red ties who need to learn a lesson or two? Again, in the words of the New Statesman feature:

"David Cameron has given his ailing party a facelift, schmoozed voters and promised to transform society magically - and the left has let him get away with it"

The difference in quality is stark and is even greater when the column containing latest news and video cuts off sentences and has its text unformatted and overlapping.

(Click image for higher resolution)

The idea of a grassroots campaign fits in perfectly with the founding principles of the Labour Party and the social democratic values at its core. However, it is all too easy to suffer the delusion that having a Facebook site and encouraging supporters to be 'active' somehow constitutes a revolutionary change in approach. Changes to the site are relatively easy to fix (and should be made as soon as possible) but they will not overcome the fundamental problem with the campaign. Even if we leave aside the rather large problem of the political figureheads (Prescott and Campbell), unless Labour changes what it means to be a 'party member' - and what it means to campaign - politics will stumble along in its current deeply unsatisfying manner and public apathy will continue on its upward trajectory.

This is an issue I feel very passionately about and will blog more on later so, watch this space.