I’ve been totally inspired by the Fabian Review published especially for Labour's Conference. Entitled ‘Must Labour Lose?’, it’s packed with masses of really useful ideas and information for kick-starting Labour. Shame about the title – I saw it in the background on the telly just about every time the news covered a Labour Fringe meeting, or turned up in case David Miliband picked his nose. Not exactly the most life-enhancing slogan that you want people to be tapping their toes to in future weeks, although admittedly a cut above ‘Forward not backwards’, ‘Fairness for hardworking families’ and ‘a bit less nasty than the Tories’ or whatever.
Anyway, there's a great piece by the Labour MP in my neighbouring constituency of Walthamstow. She seems to have the right idea – using computers to spread the word, linking in to local pressure groups, responding immediately to important local issues while not losing sight of the national ones. That’s exactly what our Lib Dem MP Lynne Featherstone has been doing for ages. Just watch me go to my first local party meeting and annoy them with my Johnny Come Lately ideas for reviving those three dispirited souls…
The trouble is, I'm not sure I have a local party anymore. Sure, there's still a Labour Party shop front in Crouch End, but even before Barbara Roche lost her seat I'm struggling to remember any moment in the last five years when I walked past to see it open.
So, readers (funny how the quotation 'reader, I married him' is known to millions, even though it was addressed to you singularly - whereas I am using the plural but can't even be sure that more than one person will actually ever read this post), that will be my next task - to stalk Crouch End, North London, in search of a Labour Party Activist.
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