Snap, Crackle and Pop
As Theresa May opts for an early election, I ask myself what can Labour do to make the most of a devastating polling deficit to the Tories?
Even those who follow politics fanatically would feel at least a smidgen of sympathy for Brenda from Bristol, who — in what might be the defining ‘vox pop’ of our era — expressed disbelief at the prospect of another General Election.
Brenda’s “Too much politics” brings to mind the film This is Spinal Tap, a spoof on the rock documentary (or ‘rockumentary’, if you will), in which members of a fictional rock band mournfully take stock on visiting Elvis’s graveside…
-Well, this is thoroughly depressing.
-It really puts perspective on things, though, doesn’t it?
-Too much. There’s too much fucking perspective.
Yet, however drained we might feel at the prospect of another vote, whatever May’s questionable motives for performing her honking great u-turn, here we find ourselves, just weeks away from another opportunity to change the future of the country for better or for worse.
Articles such as this, funny posts on twitter, long diatribes on Facebook will not be enough to provide a meaningful campaign.
As a Labour supporter, I’d be deluded to imagine anything other than a huge Tory majority come the morning of June 9th but, to paraphrase Tony Benn in a glorious 2009 interview with music journalist Simon Price and Manic Street Preachers lyricist Nicky Wire, “There is no final victory, there is no final defeat.”
Whether we think Jeremy Corbyn is the greatest thing since sliced bread or that his only legacy will be recasting Michael Foot’s Labour leadership as a great success, is really neither here nor there. Corbyn will be the man who takes the Labour Party into this election and, if we’ve any sliver of hope that the largest Tory landslide in living memory can still be avoided, we’d better accept that fact and unite behind him as quickly and as forcefully as possible. For now, at least, he is our only hope.
We must remember that, ultimately, articles such as this, funny posts on Twitter, long diatribes on Facebook etc. will not be enough to meaningfully contribute to the Labour campaign. They may make us feel better, they may focus our thoughts and help us form more coherent arguments but they won’t get the message to the people who matter. Those outside your social (media) circle, who wouldn’t dream of joining the ‘right-on’ book club you attend every Thursday evening, currently discussing Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’.
If you want to have any effect on the outcome of this General Election, get yourself to a campaign event, get in touch with the Party at local level and ask them how you can help? If you live in a constituency with an insurmountable Tory majority, find a marginal seat and find out how you can support the campaign in that region.
They are outside your social (media) circle, they wouldn’t dream of joining the ‘right-on’ book club you attend every Thursday evening currently discussing Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’.
In my Surrey constituency of Reigate, Tory MP Crispin Blunt has a majority of over 22,000. I’ll still be voting Labour, of course, but that’s not where I can have the most impact. Instead, I’ll be travelling to Isleworth — where the Labour incumbent has a slim majority — and knocking on doors to spread the message somewhere it might just make a difference. Remember, every Labour seat won is at least one more opposing voice in Parliament.
Corbyn’s leadership, if nothing else, has encouraged grassroots Labour activism enormously. The thousands of people who joined Labour membership following both Corbyn’s leadership election victories is a huge boon when it comes to election time.
If all of us, Corbynites, Blairites and everything in betweenites, unite, with the singular goal of damaging May and the Tories in this election, then the groundswell of ‘foot-soldiers’ may well be able to engage and reinvigorate a weary electorate.
The arguments must be coherently and consistently made: highlighting the Tories terrible record on national debt-reduction; exploding the myth of austerity and Labour’s so-called economic irresponsibility; explaining, with reason, how immigration is not the root cause of people’s suffering; how the damage of Brexit could be reduced if we were to make some major concessions; how well-funded schools, hospitals and other public services benefit all of us in wider society.
We might not be able to make ‘June the end of May’, but we could sow the seeds for a new way of doing battle in the modern political world, a new way of making the arguments. One that embraces modern modes of communication and social media but combines it with a grassroots activism that breaks through the media bias to speak directly to the people in a fully inclusive and united resistance to the accepted normality.
We might not be able to make ‘June the end of May’, but we could sew the seeds of a new way of doing battle in the modern political world
Corbyn is right when he says we shouldn’t be defined by the rules as presented to us by the media, Government and large corporations. However, if we’re not going to play by their rules we need to do all we can to define the alternative.
See you in Isleworth.
*Find a Labour campaign event near you at events.labour.org.uk
*Register to vote at gov.uk/register-to-vote
*Find your nearest marginal in this list of 2015 results ordered by majority
