In Cannock Chase as everywhere else, we rebuild and go back to work

By Chris Worsey

Now that the dust has settled and a Con-Lib coalition is in power, it seems the appropriate time for me to report back and reflect on and the results and lessons learned from my campaign in Cannock Chase.

First of all the results: despite polling more votes and increasing the percentage of the Labour vote I lost Cannock West by 1,376 to 2,490 votes. In one of the biggest shocks of the night, Sue Woodward, our PPC, lost to the Conservative candidate by 15,076 votes to 18,271.

Despite a high tempo campaign by Sue and her close circle of committed followers, the Labour Party were unable to hold on against the barrage of press adverts, leaflets, phone calls and ground activity. That said, Cannock Chase was not on the Conservative target list originally, and was only specifically targeted as one of the twenty additional target seats after the Tory Party nationally feared losing to sitting Lib Dems in the south west because of the apparent effects of Cleggmania.

So, what lessons have I learned from the campaign?

Firstly, through the hundreds of conversations I had on the campaign I was struck by just how modest most people’s hopes were. Most people thought that if you could work you should work, that every child should have a good education and that if you got ill you should be given the best standard of care in hospitals. They also wanted to be safe from crime on the streets, be able to provide for their families and to retire with heads held high. That was it, it wasn’t much. In conversation after conversation the fundamental decency of the British public came through. It reinforced my desire to become active in [olitics and to make a difference in improving people’s lives.

Secondly I learnt that sometimes your best efforts are not enough. Sometimes even if you work hard, are positive and have a committed team, as we did in Cannock Chase, you can still lose. It is not a reason to get disheartened or give up, though. It is a reason to rebuild, re-think strategies, learn from mistakes and employ fresh thinking, coupled with new techniques, to make sure next time we are in a position to win.

That is why in the next few months I will be travelling around the UK to meet activists involved in our most successful Labour campaigns, to learn where we in Cannock Chase can improve our campaign and to make sure we earn the right to improve people’s lives here and fulfil their hopes.