Good old boy of the day
Anyone else see this letter in the Guardian earlier this week?
I’m delighted that Michael Levy managed to lift £14m out of a few rich blokes’ pockets. Money and the advertising it buys influences middle-class swing voters who decide the outcome of our elections, not sour-faced constituency activists knocking on doors and reminding the punters what old Labour looks like. When Gordon takes over he will also need a heavy-duty fundraiser like Levy, or he will lose the next election.
Martin Bell
Port Isaac, Cornwall
Yeah - cos billboards are really effective at getting our core vote out, seeing as how they’re nimble on their feet, able to respond to local concerns on the doorstep and - crucially - keep going back until those Labour firms have voted. Numpty.
That name rings a bell (groan).
Martin Bell…Martin Bell…Martin Bell… Oh yes!
THAT Martin Bell. The one who had every journalist in the country kissing his arse, but couldn’t unseat Eric Pickles in Brentwood and Ongar against a local Con association that had been infiltrated by some religious cult.
If only he had a load of sour-faced activists and a core vote to get out….
Certainly the impression I got from the campaign in Durham was that an awful lot of money was spent on call centres doing voter ID - which presumably used to be done for free when Labour had more ’sour face activists’…
Actually Martin Bell has a point,you need big money to run elections these days and you can be sure the Tories (remember them) will be calling in every favour and big money donor in 2009/10.
Knocking on doors etc is vital of course but image and yes billboards do have an impact.
Elections are very different to the 1970s.
Hello Antonia.
Like your blog and have been reading for a while.
But I do agree with Graham. Of course activism is vital, but in an environment where we have lost members since pretty much we were elected, money is useful.
I don’t condemn any of those who loaned money. We would have lost good Labour MPs had they not done so.
Rather than attack Martin Bell, who has a strong point, perhaps it might be better to attack the Tories for not announcing their loan sources, or call for restrictions on general election spending? I imagine, however, that we would still need the funds of the likes of Messrs Rosenfeld and Garrard, and colleagues, even were restrictions to be imposed. Minerva plc - a property investment firm with no conceivable benefits to be derived - seems to be a fine source of party funds in the form of its directors…
I really don’t think that is *the* Martin Bell.
I seem to remember him having a bit of a problem with all of this when he was interviewed on’t telly. It would be a bit of an about turn…
Thank God I’m not the saintly Martin Bell. Actually I’m a Labour member in the Southwest and this weekend I will be out there canvassing for the local elections. I was just having a dig at party members who seem to think you can win a General Election on the doorstep in a mass media age. You can’t. It needs lots of dosh.
That makes me feel better Martin - you’re sour-faced too! And there was me thinking you were an armchair activist…
Antonia. I am an armchair activist and proud of it. I’m getting on a bit and suffer from gout so I’m entitled to be as sour-faced as I like. I hobble about with a double dose of Allupurinol and a mega Neurofen canvassing for the OAP vote but I also do my bit writing pro-Labour letters to the media, mainly to the Daily Mail owned daily Western Morning News. North Cornwall is a Labour wasteland,we have no district councillors and no Cornwall MP’s which is bizarre because the county is as poor as Merseyside and South Yorkshire. I love your website. Its wonderful.