Field ops matter in tight fights
We are the postmen and postwomen of the party – we deliver the message. That is essentially the job of field operations – the campaigners, the footsoldiers, the volunteers, call us what you will. And fieldwork can, done right, make all the difference. One or two thousand votes here or there would swing plenty of marginal seats in a tight election. But be under no illusion: fieldwork cannot by itself swing an entire election.
I have read several times since the election that our focus on field operations was a problem. Not that it caused our defeat, but that it may have contributed to it. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
We did have a much greater focus on field operations and strengthening campaigning in the key seats. Polls showed more people had been contacted by the Labour party than by its opponents (and on this there is little reason to think they were wrong).
We fought the 2010 election again – we just did not know it until the exit poll came in. If anything, what this result says to me is that we need to continue to build on field ops because, in retrospect, there were signs that all was not well. In Birmingham Edgbaston we had only 800 more people saying they were going to vote Labour than in 2010. We knew it was a problem. We also knew that we had a huge chunk of undecided voters whose hearts said Labour but their heads said Tory. We changed our script three times and kept tweaking our core message right up until the end in an attempt to appeal to the heart.
In Edgbaston our core campaign team has the experience of several general elections behind it and an intimate knowledge of the patch. Many organisers in other constituencies did not have that. They were skilled and knowledgeable about targeting, voter data and volunteer management. But many were fighting their first general election in a seat they only knew in the post-2010 context.
I have long argued we need to professionalise our organising model. That means providing more in-job training (including continuous professional development, that most professions now see as vital), a career path enabling organisers to stay in the job and progress in terms of salary and responsibility, and a move to increase the number of organisers who are not on general election-only contracts.
Good organisers make thousands of contacts, get volunteers, get leaflets out, get websites up, and even get the riso to work when it has decided not to. But what do our postmen and postwomen do when the electorate grabs hold of our message and writes ‘return to sender’? Great organisers can listen to what the electorate is saying and adapt, get ahead of the curve, and, critically, persuade politicians to do things that they know they should do, but do not want to.
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Caroline Badley is campaign coordinator for Birmingham Edgbaston constituency Labour party
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An excellent article if only to show the real nature of the problem we have. To change hearts and minds people need to become engaged in their communities and political activity or at least take a stance on issues throughout the years between elections. For this, all year around political organisers are a good idea. But the notion that people are passive recipients of what a postman brings is absurd. This top-down absurdity developed under the Blair years is actually a very good explanation for the failure we have. It announces that, ‘we the ‘knowing people’ think best and you need to hear us’, preferable harder than last time.
The absence of the Labour establishment in the substantial and successful austerity march so soon after an election defeat highlights how detached the elite have become from the early groundswell of opinion. Of course I might be being generous in that the leadership may actually agree about the need for working people’s austerity whilst increasing tax rate thresholds for the more comfortable. If Labour misses out at seeding time it will grow little and there will be no authority at election time. As well as having older or passive, paid, and career-minder politicians it may also have fewer supporters. Of course, as long as you have the money to reward the few there will always be those who may acquire personal benefit/gain. Of course leadership is needed but the politics behind this message replaces professionalism with managerialism and hence sees the corporatist model as preferable to a political party. What terrible mistake and how few lessons learnt.
In Erdington it appears that we have 50 – 60 regular posties who are not party members. Perhaps we could offer them free memberships. Surely they are more deserving of a vote than the £3 newbies! It would also allow publications to be locally specific and stop this we only turn up at election time mentality which is apparent in some wards. Overall the result in Birmingham was positive. Labour are clearly doing something right here. Now we must prove our worth and turn these cuts around and throw them back in the face by involving every party member, volunteer, supporter . . . everyone really and run the services that the Tories refuse to fund. I have been a member for two and a half years now and see the genuine good will of so many. This is what we need to display to the people we meet, genuine compassion, and the rest will follow. Lead by example and the flock will follow.