Had I written this piece this time last week, the mood music of the election campaign that I am describing would have been different. Labour had had a couple of good opinion polls and reports coming back from the doorsteps were fairly positive. However, a week being a long time and all that, things post the James and Rupert Murdoch show have moved up a gear.
As we head into the last week of the campaign, Labour activists are redoubling their efforts to get out the vote and our opponents’ latest media releases are descending into farce and abuse, or both. Plaid Cymru has even dropped the word ‘nationalist’ and are claiming to be socialists, despite keeping the Lib Dems in power in Cardiff and running Caerphilly with the help of assorted independents, most of who might object to be called a socialist.
So we are in a very different place, then, from 2008, just before the current economic crisis started, but the gloss had definitely started to come off the Gordon Brown government. Shockwaves reverberated across the Labour heartlands as council after council was lost to no overall control or lost outright.
The time since then has been well spent, however, and the defeats of 2008 that were felt so deeply have taught Labour in Wales a valuable lesson. Being in central government at either London or Cardiff level does not mean that you can neglect your core supporters, your core communities or your essential party structures. Without attention to each of these key things, you will lose elections.
Wales Labour is running a very locally directed campaign in the 2012 elections and it is working. Despite the worst general election result since 1918 just two years ago, people seem to be willing to listen to our message again. I think that is partly down to the Welsh government being the only Labour administration at a national level left in the UK. It has shown how it was possible to make choices that protected the most vulnerable in our country from the excesses of the Con-Dems’ cuts in England and this strategy has worked so far.
Hopes are high to regain control in Flintshire, Blaenau Gwent, Newport, Merthyr Tydfil and Torfaen. Seats will undoubtedly be gained in Wrexham and I know that colleagues in the Conwy council area are going to do well also. Of course, there are no elections in Ynys Mon, as the council there is suspended until 2013. One pleasing aspect of these elections is the increased number of women standing for Labour. As someone elected for the first time in 1984 aged 22, I was one of a very few women on my council and that stayed the case for the next 20 years of my local government service. I look forward to seeing many excellent Labour women returned on May 3.
The outcome next Thursday is not yet guaranteed but with one last push I am sure there will be much to celebrate. And then the real hard work starts for us all to learn from the experiences across the whole of Wales so that we can play our part in delivering the maximum number of seats for Labour at the next general election. The Welsh people need Labour to represent them at all levels and next Thursday we will begin the journey to ensuring that is the case.
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Margaret Hanson is standing for the National Policy Forum in Wales and for the Labour candidacy for North Wales police and crime commissioner. She tweets @hanson4nwpcc
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