The power of Watson

No-one would doubt that Tom Watson has had an impressive year, taking on Rupert Murdoch (and winning) led to him entering the shadow cabinet as deputy chair and campaign co-ordinator. Although there’s obviously plenty of buzz about the former – which will allow Watson to go on the attack against the Tories – the later is potentially more exciting. His role as campaign co-ordinator will allow him to work hand in glove with the new General Secretary Iain McNicol, both of whom will wake up each day focused on how Labour can beat the Tories on the ground in 2015.

To that end, Tom has already had a positive effect.

On Monday, an email from Watson was sent to all party members, asking for donations. These emails rarely raise significant sums of money outside of an election period, yet Watson’s brought in almost £8000 in a day – a record for a non-election email campaign.

Obviously we’re still lightyears behind the levels of online giving that are standard in America, but the party’s level of engagement online – as we flagged up here – has improved in recent weeks. Raising money online isn’t the silver bullet for party funding – there is no silver bullet – but it’s an important part of a rounded fundraising effort. It’s good to see that the party are employing some of the methods that could make such a strategy a success.