The British people want a relationship not a speed date

Over the next few months the debate about our general election defeat will focus on Ed and the ‘air war’.  Whilst our national message and leadership is important it is vital we also discuss our ‘ground war’.

Our ‘ground war’ focused on the number of voters we could speak to in a four month period – this was a speed date election. It is important we now focus on the questions we ask, how we use the information and how we instead build a meaningful relationship with the British people.

If we are honest with ourselves what many people face on the doorstep is only a series of questions about their past, current and future voting intentions. Many more simply get “You’ll support Labour won’t you! Good, thanks for the support!”

It is a one way smash and grab for information that leaves the voter none the wiser about our candidate, our party or the changes we are pledging to make. Much more importantly it takes no account for who the voter is, what they believe and what they want to see changed.

We would have spotted we were not in sync with British people earlier if we had changed how we were speaking to voters. We need to change our doorstep interactions into genuine interactions.  Let’s have a conversation with the British people instead.

We need to ask first and foremost for their name. Yes we have it on the voter ID sheets but it puts them on the back foot and makes the conversation immediately feel like a sales call.  We should then introduce ourselves – it is only logical at the beginning of a relationship.

We should then ask them what their biggest concern in the local area is.  This is vital.  It shows we are active, local and looking for work.  It will also lead to successful street campaigns, driven by, and more importantly, remembered by voters.  The anti-fly tipping signs installed in the local alley will be there in five years, the memory of short intrusive door knocking session will not.

We should then ask if the person we are speaking to voted for Labour and is likely to do so in the future for our voter ID records.

Finally, we write to them after the door knocking session informing them of the campaign we are running to address the concerns they raised and update them again with the campaign’s final outcome.  The campaign may not always be successful but we will have shown we are on their side and vocal on local issues.

It sounds like a much longer conversation than we are currently having with voters.  It will take on average two or three minutes longer but we have five years to build these relationships.

It also sounds like much more work. It is more work – but frankly it is work we want to do such as writing direct mails and cultivating community volunteers.

Our party mobilises like no other and we hit the streets to do the groundwork in our thousands. We will talk a lot over the coming months about rebuilding our relationship with the British people.  My contribution; lets listen a little more to what they have to say and put ourselves at the front of genuine street campaigns that deliver the changes they want close to home.  Remember, ‘all politics is local’.