The General Erection [reflections on the eve of 2015 election reposted in 2017]

The General Erection [reflections on the 2015 General Election originally posted on the eve of the election. In a state of disappointment I deleted the post shortly after the election results came in. I later  rediscovered a draft of the original post and with a few minor corrections reposted it on 1st May 2017 as Britain heads towards another General Election]

As a Labour supporter I find it difficult to engage too closely with mainstream coverage of the general election.  I'm too easily tipped into a rage by biased and hostile copy carrying the opinions of newspaper proprietors as news. Labour and its leaders are savagely attacked from the right (and often lazily sneered at from the apparent left).  If you think I'm soft skinned check out the academic research on the topic or take a look at the ridiculous hyperbole of today's pre-election day headlines.

I take refuge as a volunteer helping to put up 'vote labour' signs in supporters gardens. Political signage might not be everyone's cup of tea, but there's a physical therapy and mental balm to devising and building these erections. Each site presents a different opportunity and challenge. If you see a sign, someone has usually thought about it more than you might think. It's part of the street by street battle; allowing supporters to show their colours and in doing so lifting the spirits of our troops in the all important 'ground war'.  We all play our parts great and small.

Over the years the ebb and flow of political support is there to divine if one reads the signs. In the marginal I live in we are currently ahead 'on the poles', last time when the tories got back we were not.

As we saw, hammer, and nail our way around the constituency it's a chance for me to reflect and meditate on the political process and wider campaign.  It appears to me that this election has deliberately been side-tracked on to the topic of future coalitions. Rather than defend the dismal record of their own  coalition, the Tories have desperately attempted to foster fear of an imagined coalition of nationalists and labour. The media have willingly played along imagining a host of different possible groupings based on the noise of polls that have hardly shifted.  Labour has been criticised for trying to campaign on its policies to win rather than speculate on imagined groupings if it doesn't!

The irony is that Labour is and always has been a coalition for progress. Its much maligned structure -- involving unions and different socialist societies - reflects a heritage of coalition. It's myriad accommodations testament to an understanding of the need to present a united programme that can can be agreed as best as possible. The party is a reflection of an ongoing conversation about progress, justice and fairness, with each election a new construct is designed to fit the times. There is even an electoral agreement between two legal entities the labour and co-operative parties (which others could learn from if the were pragmatic enough). Labour is the very embodiment of coalition, one made before not left until after an election.

In an age of image obsessed supermarket brand politics, the diversity of this grand coalition within Labour  is often obscured. Those who fail to see it may take refuge in seemingly ideological purer minority parties. Sadly we end up competing for the same votes and risk losing the very progress we seem to seek in the process.  

I'm not sure where these reflections or the story of this election will end, but if you are reading this in good faith with an open mind, I hope you may reflect on the pragmatism and compromise that has helped labour be a positive force for change in the past  I hope also you may appreciate the efforts of Ed Miliband as Labour's leader  to help steer the progressive conversation across this coalition and give it shape in an pragmatic programme to put to the British people, tomorrow.

Anyhow long day tomorrow. I know who I'm voting for.  My sign is up. I hope enough sign up to put us on a better path.

Reflections on the election

Last time I wrote a blog on the election in 2015 it was late coming and I deleted it soon after.  I doubt many people, if any, read it.

I deleted the post as the election results came in. I had arrived home late after a taking a day off work to help with the election day 'get out the vote' push.  I had been to the post-election gathering for a few pints and it was not long before the atmosphere turned.  First the exit poll nobody believed . Then the slow trickle of results that turned disbelief into reality.

I felt crushed. It didn't make sense. Things seemed to be at odds with my experience of the local campaign. Returning home in despair I deleted the blog and posted "I could be some time" to Facebook before retiring in despondency.

Fast forward to now.  Britain now has a different prime minister. The opposition has a new leader.  We have experienced a divisive referendum. Britain is now on course to leave the EU.  The integrity of our of own union is again under challenge.  We also have - despite the fixed term parliament act and a government with a clear majority - another general election. The stability the Conservatives promised then now seems an illusion. Once again they are promising us strong and stable government. This time the media seem to be reporting the election like a forgone conclusion.  It would be easy to remain in despair.

I found a draft of my 2015 blog post not long back. It was interesting for me to read with the benefit of hindsight. Now that an election has been called I decided to repost it and add this one.  They are just my perspectives then and now. Hopefully someone is reading this and will read the reposted one too.  Maybe it will strike a chord or make you think

Whatever your political view, I hope you find these posts of interest as in insight into the mind of a volunteer with a bit part in a local political campaign.  It is perhaps a view rarely represented in the mainstream.  We forget the general elections are but a series of local contests to elect local Members of Parliament. Try as some might to make us think otherwise we don't have a presidential system - very few of us are actually voting for Jeremy Corbyn or Theresa May.  Local people make campaigns and local issues matter.

In part I hope this post may inspire you to share your voice and get involved in the  General Election in 2017. The success of negative campaigning in 2015 knocked me. I found the cynicism debilitating. Reposting my original thoughts -and these- is my small way of reclaiming something positive - and some hope. The election is not a forgone conclusion. 

Whatever party you support I think it's important that we can look out for and call out cynical manipulation. Repeated robotic slogans are no substitute for ideas. I believe we can and need to make this election about the quality of different ideas and the qualities of those who seek to represent our local communities. We can't let a creeping insidious negativity cloud our judgment. Turning people off is a problem for our democracy. It doesn't have to be like this.

If you have read my reposted election eve post from 2015 you know the headline of what happened next, but perhaps not the local detail.  When I woke up to get ready for work exhausted and with a fuzzy head our local result was still not in. The national picture was clear: victory for the Conservatives.  The local result came in as I was still getting dressed. We had taken the seat from the Conservatives by a narrow margin.  I think I swore. I know I burst into tears- a real bitter sweet moment.  My sense of the local campaign had not been wrong. We had won our battle. Sadly my party lost the wider war.  

The next few days were a roller coaster too.  The local election count went to the wire.  Locally we took control of our council from the Conservatives . The Ward I live in was the last one called. It elected two Labour councilors resulting in a group with a majority of one.  My time helping out was not after all in vain.

Local victories aside, I was indeed away "some time". In disillusionment I stepped away - watched and read less and less. The quality of the debate in the EU referendum didn't help, nor the tone of the leadership contests in my own party. I participated less and less. I didn't know what to say. I felt increasingly powerless. The cynical manipulation I had seen rewarded nearly turned me off for good. 

I have only recently woken from this slumber when a local by-election was called - remember the bit about the majority of one!   When you have something good that's worth defending it can focus the mind. Our candidate was a friend and a thoroughly decent person- someone you'd really appreciate as a councillor.  Somewhere along the line a general election was called and the by-election took on a new light still.

Fresh from the local by-election, won with an increased share of the vote that appears contrary to what national polls may suggest - I attended my first party meeting in a very long time.  Our MP gave a truly magnificent speech - a speech to die for.  No one in the room could doubt his sincerity, his heartfelt appreciation of representing our city in parliament and the need for us to fight for every last vote to enable him to continue to so so.

I'm back now.  Hope has returned.  We returned an MP worth fighting for. We still have ideas worth offering. There's a story to tell and if the national media seem reluctant to tell it we'll have to do it ourselves.  I could just sit at home wounded by apparent media bias, switched off by endless speculation, burnt out by bickering.  I choose not to. I choose hope.  My area bucked the trend last time because we wrote the script. Local campaigns matter. MPs that fight our corner matter. We may have the battle of our lives ahead -no doubt - but I have at least re-found my voice. I plan to use the skills I have to help. Election campaigns don't happen by magic - the rely on volunteers.

Whatever you believe I hope you can find your voice to raise the standard of political discussion. Let's decide the election on the ideas and platforms presented. Let our choices be informed.