Remembrance of things past

For anyone that ever sat in the balcony at Labour conference and tried hard not to be moved to tears by one of Tony Blair's early speeches: this is for you...

http://tonyblairoffice.org/2008/05/blair-delivers-yale-class-day.html

I think that's just you and me Steve... Ah well.

Change the Crewe?

Crewe and Nantwich. Difficult. We need to reflect. The campaign was poor - we knew that half way through, but didn't seem to change tack. I also have an issue with the campaign materials which insulted the intelligence of many voters. In this day and age we have to respect residents' knowledge about the world around them, not try to pull the wool.

One example was the inflated claim that Tamsin Dunwoody had helped convince the Chancellor to compensate losers in Crewe over the 10p tax band debacle. Everyone knows that is political bluster. Why not just calm down and focus on the facts? It frustrates me.

I don't want to carp and criticise. Gordon is a phenomenal politician who has slipped behind the zeitgeist, I hope temporarily. We need some of the new Labour organisational skills back, some of the dynamic narrative. I suspect that the quiet twosome, Milburn and Byers, may have something to add to this debate - they were campaiging hard in C&N I note.

A quick reality check

Put me in a room full of the party faithful and my political batteries re-charge. It's why I love party conference so much.

So tonight's Progress meeting, Can Labour Win in the South?, was just what I needed. I can already see the big beaming grin spreading across Lewis's face so let me elaborate. First off, the room was completely rammed. Packed. A good sign.

Charles Clarke was pretty restrained and it would be difficult to build a critical story out of most of the comments he made - although he did set out a very Blairite routemap as a way through. I could see the political ghosts of Alan Milburn and Steve Byers standing behind him, a bit like Yoda and Obi Wan at the end of Return of the Jedi.

John Denham was passionate about Gordon's ability to get the party out of its current position. Everyone on the panel talked about a febrile media environment with "paraphrasing" misquotes rampant.

It was the call for authenticity that rang true for me - that's what appears to be lacking at the moment. Alan Johnson was authentic on Today this week - angry at the "True Confessions" mindset, irritated that policy is playing second fiddle to personality. But of course personality is the conduit for authenticity. Hmmm tricky that...

All in all it was a great analysis of the current situation from a politician's, rather than a commentator's, point of view.

Derek Draper was nice, Nicky Gavron took a shed-load of notes, as did Martha Kearney. Peter Hain listened, nodded, but cuts an odd figure these days without a Cabinet role.

Dawkins!

This morning Richard Dawkins did two impossible things before breakfast, on the Today programme. First he nobbled Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Conor's argument that perhaps athiests should have a dialogue with the church. Second he actually put John Humphreys on the spot arguing that, given he's always so forensic in his interviews with politicians, he shouldn't let the good Cardinal off just because he purports to believe in a higher power.

Underground nonsense

Summer underground
And the tube is vacuum packed,
But the ipod opens spaces
When my eyes close like clams.
When I think about elections
I stop getting erections
But Tories do that to you, sometimes.

Summer underground
And such beauty reading novels,
But the skin opens spaces
As a breeze devours the train.
We all try not to make contact
When all we really want is contracts
The city makes us lonely, sometimes.

The Outer Limits

In the end Labour's vote didn't quite come out. Poor Ken. I listened to his concession speech with a few tears going on. To me its proof that to win an election today you need personality more than policy. Johnson's campaign had no substance at all - Lynton Crosby's strategy of taking one dog whistle issue and being relentless about it seems to have worked. But the "he's a right larf" factor did its work. And the four by four brigade in the bits of London that aren't really London did the rest.

Ken has personality and actually delivered a huge number of votes given the national picture, but he had also antagonised the outer boroughs, with the Tories succeeding in spreading scare stories about the level of the congestion charge. Sleaze allegations did not help. His last gift to London was to help Labour stabilise its position on the Assembly. We picked up Brent, which was a surprise, and we held onto Haringey. With 8 Labour members, 3 Lib Dems and 2 Greens, the 11 Tories will be unable to claim the whip hand, unless the Lib Dems do the dirty.

The Evening Standard's role in the campaign will be the subject of media studies dissertations for some time. I don't think I'll ever be buying it again. All in all a numbingly awful day for us. No excuses. The Party has to do better.