It’s good to talk: How Labour is generating an enthusiastic support base for the campaign

By David Chaplin / @ChaplinDavid

It’s a difficult time just now for Labour activists. If we’re not actually candidates ourselves, then we’re working hard to support candidates not just in parliamentary seats but also across thousands of council wards as well.

For many this coming election has been ‘coming’ for about two years and our campaigns have been running at (nearly) full throttle for weeks if not months. So now that the general election announcement is nearly upon us, the quiet bank holiday weekend feels more like the end of the campaign than the start of it.

It’s easy for Party HQ and regional staffers to feel the adrenaline beginning to pump as they finally get to play their key role in brining the whole campaign together, but for activists and volunteers, energy levels might be starting to drop off as another five weeks of canvassing and phone banking stares us in the face.

However, this needn’t be the case. Once the Prime Minister kicks things off this week (officially) Labour needs to generate that same sense of enthusiasm which already exists within the Party machine amongst our activists and doorstep campaigners across the country. They’ll be looking for a strong message from the campaign launch and the subsequent manifesto that all their hard work is not going to waste and that the leadership of our Party are ready to take on the huge challenges facing our economy and society after the election is done and dusted.

Part of this can be done by communicating better with activists. Peter Mandelson’s email to campaigners this weekend is a great start. Although the Prince of Darkness might not be every activist’s cup of tea, he is the man coordinating our election campaign and so it’s important that activists hear directly from the man himself about our focus and commitment to deliver a record fourth Labour term.

Equally, David Miliband’s new campaign blog is a great way to show activists as well as voters that senior figures are out there, either in person or via the phone bank, pulling their weight and using every opportunity possible to speak with the public about the issues that matter to them.

The Young Fabians have also launched a new campaigners’ diary on their blog for everyday activists, volunteers, doorknockers and leaflet stuffers to share motivational stories and examples from their local campaign, every day until the election itself.

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