When we fight we win

By Kerry McCarthy MP / @KerryMP

As you’ll no doubt already be aware tomorrow evening the Labour Party will be airing a new version of this video as its Party Political Broadcast following the Queen’s Speech.

The PPB takes many of the elements of the video, first shown at Labour Party Conference this year, and places the measures being announced in the Queen’s Speech in the context of other Labour achievements like the founding of the NHS and the introduction of the minimum wage.

The story told in the video is the story of Britain and of our Party – people fighting to achieve change, people fighting to secure fairness and opportunity for those in middle and modest circumstances and people fighting for the country as a whole. And it tells the story of how we in the Labour Party are not done with this change – as measures outlined in the Queen’s Speech will show – and why our determination to fight now is as strong as ever.

So this is the story outlined in the video – but perhaps as interesting a story is the story of how this film came to be the Party Political Broadcast in the first place.

The story begins with one lone blogger, Ellie Gellard (@BevaniteEllie), who saw the video at Conference and felt strongly that it should be seen by a wider audience.

Writing on LabourList she outlined her case and encouraged others to join her crusade. And join they did. Within days hundreds had signed up her Facebook group and petition. There were 1,500 tweets and 10,000 views of the video on YouTube. Alastair Campbell, John Prescott and Eddie Izzard all signalled their support.

Meanwhile, the Labour Party’s strategists had noted the campaign. It’s clear the video appeals to Labour supporters, but then they tested it in focus groups of swing voters and it was going down well. And so the decision to update it and run it as the Queen’s Speech PPB was taken.

This decision is a victory for Labour’s thriving online community. It’s a victory for everyone who understands the power that new forms of communication are now giving us. And it’s a victory for the Labour Party who should be congratulated for acting so quickly to embrace the opportunity here.

And finally – for me the story told in the PPB and the story of Ellie’s campaign have the same lesson. The same lesson the Prime Minister spoke of after the fantastic result for Labour in last week’s Glasgow North East by-election. And it’s the lesson we should all remember as we campaign our socks off for Labour in the coming months: when we fight we win.

The video will be shown tomorrow night (Wednesday) at 5:55pm on BBC 2 and at 6:55pm on BBC1 and ITV1.