In new media command and control doesn’t work: we need to embrace and engage

By Peter Mandelson

First, let me make something clear. In government what matters above all else is not what you say but what you do. That is why Gordon, Alistair and myself have been, with our colleagues, working around the clock to put in place the measures we need to get through this downturn in the best and fairest way.

People remain, of course, worried about their jobs and homes but they see, I believe, that their government is doing whatever it takes to protect them. Unlike the Tories who, to coin a phrase, plan to “do nothing”.

Soon, Barack Obama will announce a fiscal stimulus that will further underline quite how isolated the Tories are. He, like us at today’s jobs summit, is making jobs and investment the priority – you can read in detail about his approach here. Yet the Tories reject the action that is required to ensure that this downturn is shorter and shallower than it otherwise would be, and, as Yvette said last week, they are proposing the “economic madness” of spending cuts in a recession.

This message – that their response is inadequate and amounts to nothing – and that their judgement is flawed is one that we will, rightly, be repeating in the months to come.

Voters know that it is right to plan and invest for the upturn: ensuring that future jobs and growth come from new innovations in areas such as environmental technology, high-tech manufacturing and the creative industries. I am glad that, at least when it comes to the latter, the Labour party itself is now moving to the forefront of new media and online campaigning. I am glad to be a part of that, even if it is with my tongue in my virtual cheek.

I have blogged before, when I was a European Commissioner at the WTO Doha Ministerial meeting in Geneva last July, and I enjoyed it. But in this, my first UK political blog, I want to say something about how we get our message out in these modern times. Because the world has changed since 1997. Now, no-one has been more identified with message and campaigning discipline than myself, something that makes me rather proud, I have to say, because, during the 1980s, I saw the Labour party repeatedly let down its voters by failing to win the battle with the Tories and the media. Back then we were in hand-to-hand combat with an almost universally hostile press but sometimes we were our own worst enemy.

This must, of course, never happen again, and so we will still need loyalty and discipline, and that crucial other component, focussed, hard work. But when it comes to new media we have to recognise that the days of command and control are over. Instead we need to learn to embrace and engage. That is why I am writing this blog and will be at LabourList’s launch blogger’s breakfast on the 12th February. It is also why I will be returning here to respond to your comments in the days to come.

So, in the spirit of openness and, dare I say it, comradeship, let the conversation continue!