The Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has Theresa May’s Tories on the ropes. It is unlikely she will be able to hold on to power for long as she tries to patch together a deal with the DUP while facing mounting criticism from the media and her own party. However, the Labour Party must not take the situation for granted.

The result of the 8 June General Election is very similar to what happened in December 1923 and the signs do not augur well if this comparison sticks.

In December 1923 – as now – the Conservatives were the largest party but unable to form a majority government. The Tory Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, managed to hang on for a month or so but eventually lost a vote of confidence that led to Ramsay MacDonald being asked to form a minority government in January 1924.

This was the first ever Labour government and – then as now – the media and their allies in the Tory party were quick to paint it as the beginning of the end.

At the time, Winston Churchill said: “The enthronement in office of a Socialist Government will be a serious national misfortune such as has usually befallen great states only on the morrow of defeat in war.”

Because Labour did not have a majority and was dependent on support from the Liberals, its time in government was very short – only 266 days. This meant that little of the Labour Party programme was able to be enacted. The government’s main achievement was the Housing Act, which allowed for more local authority housing, before the Liberals called an end to their deal and a new General Election was called in October 1924.

Before the October 1924 election, Labour was under intense scrutiny from the media and a forged letter (the ‘Zinoviev letter’) was ‘found’ that showed links between the Labour government and the Communist Party in Russia. This is the kind of dirty trick that we are so familiar with, however the main reason Labour lost the October 1924 election was it didn’t seem to be a competent government.

Labour’s competence in 1924 was not helped by such matters as Ramsay MacDonald being both Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, but the main part of the problem was that the government had its hands tied behind its back because of its minority government status.

Any government with no clear mandate and under intense scrutiny will struggle.

The lesson to learn from 1924 is that any Labour government – but especially a radical one – will struggle to get things done unless it forms a majority government.

While the successes of 8 June had a lot to do with Labour’s positive campaign: the manifesto, large public rallies and the popularity of our leader, it cannot be denied that the Conservatives were very poor.

It’s almost impossible to imagine the Conservatives will not improve in the next election so Labour must up its game.

The party machine, starting with Iain McNicol, must work to create an engine for a membership of one million people that will keep them energised, enthusiastic and active. Campaigning at a local level must be encouraged, the selection process for seats must be opened up and there must we must always be on election alert.

If the party apparatus is unable to bring this change then there must be a clear out.

It would be a tragedy if all the hard work put in by activists to support Jeremy Corbyn were to end up with a scenario like 1924 – we need a majority government that can put into practice the policies this country needs so badly.

As the General Election exit poll approached on Thursday night, I was fearing the worst. Past elections haunted me. I was traumatised by the memory of nausea inflicted by David Dimbleby at 10:02pm in 1987, 1992, 2015. My head was running ahead of itself, thinking about how sad it was that the public were voting against their own interests again. I thought about the unfairness of the media bias and the inbalance in election spending between the two main parties.

This is called catastrophising, in which a set of negative, intrusive thoughts come up based on former bad experiences.

I don’t think I am alone in this. It is something that I have heard a lot in the last couple of years. ‘Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable’, ‘you can’t get elected with socialist policies’, ‘he’s a nice bloke, but he’ll never be Prime Minister’. These are all negative projections.

Some of the people uttering such statements have been doing so as part of propaganda. They have not wanted Jeremy Corbyn to succeed because they disagree with his principles of engagement and grassroots campaigns. And they’ve wanted to demoralise those who might support him. But, whatever their motives, their voices have mixed with those of the traumatised to form a chorus of ‘Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable’.

Carry on regardless

However, despite this sense of hopelessness, me and many others fought for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party without regard for the outcome. The issues at stake: peace and anti-austerity were too great. This election was not a spectator sport, but one in which many played an active part.

I was in west London on Thursday evening campaigning in a key marginal (Ealing Central & Acton). When I arrived at the Labour Party office, it was like a GP’s waiting room, although the receptionist was a bit more friendly. There were teams of people sitting on plastic chairs, waiting to be called to start door knocking. And every five minutes or so, another team would return with filled out sheets in ring binders. Walking out on Acton High Street, on every block, my team was passed by another team of Labour activists and we would salute each other. I was told by one Labour member that there were 600 people volunteering that day – that’s over 100 teams of five going out and returning to base four times a day.

What was the result from this campaigning in Acton? In 2015, the incumbent Labour MP, Rupa Huq, had a majority of 250 but this is now over 13,000!

This result was not isolated. Similar results happened all over the country. Mobilising members and supporters paid off handsomely.

Unstoppable machine

It is clear that the Conservative Party cannot continue in government for long with no majority and hardly anyone to form a coalition with. We are bound to see a General Election soon. If Labour can continue to engage members and supporters, then we are unstoppable.

We have won seats like Ipswich, Stroud, Bedford, Battersea, Colne Valley, Portsmouth South, Canterbury and Kensington. Now that the trauma from past elections has been healed, we will be able to take Bolton West, Hastings & Rye, Carlisle, Middlesborough South & Cleveland, Nuneaton, Milton Keynes South, both Northampton seats, Corby, Putney and many more.

Soon enough, we will be crowd surfing Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10.

Theresa May messed up my schedule and she will pay for it.

Following the Easter weekend, I had resolved to make progress setting up fundraising gigs for charities and political campaign groups – see my last blog (‘If I can do it for the Labour Party I can do it for anyone’). Sitting in my second favourite cafe in Brentford, I was preparing phone calls to possible clients when I glanced at Facebook and saw: ‘Theresa May to make announcement at 11am’.

At 10:55, Theresa May lost patience with herself and ran out into the street to confirm what had already been leaked – that there was to be a General Election on 8 June. This was obviously a decision that had nothing to do with Brexit – and all to do with favourable opinion polls for the Tories.

So the fixed-term parliament legislation proved pointless. And any long-term plans to modernise the Labour Party will have to wait. We are now in a situation where the party needs to urgently engage and mobilise people.

So what can Labour do to win the General Election?

The first thing to say is that the Labour Party cannot possibly win if it uses the same campaigning strategy it has used for the past 20 years. The basis of this strategy is voter identification with minimal engagement with voters, backed up by glossy leaflets that amount to little more than a calling card. It’s doubtful that the Labour Party machine led by Iain McNicol will come up with anything original to change this. Their skillset is more suited to stopping innovation. If Labour is to have a chance of winning it will have to look outside the party machine.

There are a number of people I have met who are well aware that we have to come up with our own ideas for campaigns. We cannot rely on what the party tells us to do.

Here are some ideas I have picked up since Theresa May’s announcement

1. Door knocking is important but at least 50% of people do not open their door and, of those that do, many do not want to engage in discussion. Street stalls are an equally effective way of grabbing people’s attention and should be encouraged. I’ve even heard of a drummer joining street stall so that no one can miss them!
2. A campaign to get up as many ‘I’m voting Labour’ posters up as possible is a great way to counter the media bias that Labour is unpopular. We need to urge as many Labour members as possible to put up posters (or the even grander garden stakes). Canvassers should always carry them or give them out on street stalls. It’s possible to order 100 A3 posters from the Labour Party website for £7 plus postage. The link is here.
3. Labour supporters on social media must put out more videos of themselves, their family and their friends that express support for Jeremy Corbyn. If we have a wave of ‘I support Jeremy Corbyn’ videos on social media this will again counter the idea that Labour’s leader is not popular. People are far more likely to watch videos of ordinary people expressing themselves than they are of professional politicians saying ‘vote for me’.
4. We need to put on more events that mobilise and inspire Labour supporters. This will once again show the public that we are a cultural movement.

To make up for the failings of the Labour Party machine, I have decided to put on a tour of Stand up for Labour that will cover as much of the country as is possible in the available time. So far we have dates planned in Twickenham, Nottingham, Cornwall, York, Middlesborough, Bangor, Carlisle, Stoke, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. These events are a fantastic way to raise morale during the last few weeks of the campaign. We will also be putting out lots of social media to show how popular the Labour Party really is.

Each date on the tour will also include a ten-minute section that will feature videos from local film makers. These films will show how ordinary people have been inspired to take part in political campaigns in the past two years. The hub for this set of films is Brit Rocks, which provides a positive perspective on true British values, those of tolerance, compassion, a sense of community and creative flair.

The General Election offers people a rare opportunity to be heard. We should facilitate this not just through giving them a pencil in the polling station.

If you have any ideas for campaigning that you would like to share, please get in touch and I will do my best to share them as widely as possible.

There is a misconception among some people in politics that ‘door knocking’ is a chore.

This is mostly because the ‘conversation’ techniques that have commonly been used in the Labour Party have involved not having a conversation at all but simply asking people about their voting preference (voter identification (id)).

Voter id is certainly a useful tool in the last few weeks of an election campaign when we need to find out where are voters are, but it does nothing to increase our vote.

If we are simply interested in identifying our vote (and remember we last the last two general elections), then we will inevitably lose election after election. So, to coin the phrase of Danielle Grufferty’s ‘satirical’ CorbynSuperfan, voter id is ‘Horseshit’.

However, having a real conversation with people and asking people about their opinions is a great way to show we are listening and not just there for electioneering. 

In the new year, I was out doorknocking in my ward and I found that just asking people what their concerns were and actually listening to them was not only good for them (as they felt someone was interested), but it also gave me an insight into what issues are of interest and how Labour locally could frame policies.

I was invited into two houses for a cup of tea just for having this kind of conversation. I was also asked for information about how to get involved in local politics.

Having genuine conversations can be a great way of recruiting more supporters into the party and, they in turn, can inspire more people to do so.

My suggestion to all Labour supporters is to participate in door knocking when they can and to make sure that they don’t just get drawn into the ‘voter id’ conversation. If we actually engage with people a bit deeper and listen to them then door knocking is fantastic.

This may go against most people’s idea of a light read, but over the last few days I have been absorbed in Seumas Milne’s account of the miners’ strike, ‘The Enemy Within’. It not only exposes the deliberate plot to destroy the coal industry, but also shows how MI5 was involved in making false allegations against the National Union of Mineworkers. A similar plot was made against George Galloway after the Iraq War but was exposed by him in a court case in which he won substantial damages from the Telegraph.

On both occasions, the mainstream media regurgitated all the false allegations fed to them by the UK intelligence service. The idea was to discredit the NUM as being corrupt, just as it was to discredit George Galloway by accusing him of taking £375,000 in payments from Saddam Hussein.

‘The Enemy Within’ shows that the political establishment in this country will resort to any methods to undermine any challenge to its interests.

This is particularly appropriate when we consider Jeremy Corbyn’s position as a truly socialist Labour Party leader.

It’s obvious that Jeremy Corbyn being Labour Party leader doesn’t sit well with the establishment in this country – the super rich, the media, even some people in his own party.

These people have already put up resistance to his leadership by repeatedly running negative stories, publishing false allegations and, in the case of some Labour MPs, organising a series of resignations to give the impression he was losing support.

So what should we do about this opposition that seeks to undermine Labour’s leader through false propaganda?

Should we look for a compromise whereby we water down policies to curry favour with the establishment?

This isn’t really an option.

The thing that has led hundreds of thousands of people to join the Labour Party is Jeremy Corbyn’s integrity. His opinions have been consistent. He doesn’t change them according to what is fashionable in media circles.

Apart from the fact that he wouldn’t compromise anyway, back-tracking would lose Jeremy Corbyn support just as fast as it lost the Lib Dems support when they joined the coalition in 2010.

So, with a radical set of policies put forward by a principled leader, it is certain that the establishment will use every plot and trick in the book to undermine the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn.

Should we give up our hopes because we have the whole establishment against us?

The pressure on Jeremy Corbyn – and those around him – has been relentless. And it is unlikely to ease up. Is it possible for Labour to win an election under such attack?

This is the fear. And, as with all fear, it begets fear and negativity. We need to stop worrying about the media and whether we can win an election or not. That kind of self-obsession gets us nowhere and also makes us unattractive.

We can get our ideas out on social media and through grassroots campaigns that do not rely on the mainstream media. And we need the Labour Party to do more to encourage these to happen. We cannot allow the MPs or the bureaucrats who are opposed to Jeremy Corbyn to hold this back.

We need to get back to where this campaign started. We need to rekindle that excitement about a new politics where we can open up discussion and be imaginative about how we do things.

Events are key

This means more events – big and small – that will give people things to talk about. I have seen from Stand up for Labour, the #JC4PM tour, Curry for Corbyn, public meetings I’ve organised and the Corbyn Christmas single that having an event to look forward to and be part of gives people a sense of belonging that social media ‘likes’ do not. We also need to work harder on making connections with people that are not just ‘on the doorstep’.

But, above all, when we have the whole political establishment doing all it can to undermine us, we need to encourage each other and keep faith in the new politics.

There is no scientific, material reason why people get involved in politics. If it were this simple then surely we would not have the kind of unequal society we have. For many people the idea that we can change things seems like a dream or something that is too much work. It’s easier to deny it is possible and accept life as it is.

People need to be inspired to get involved in politics.

If we are to engage more people in politics and set up a mass membership Labour Party that will defeat the Tories, we must do our best to make sure we encourage people to get involved and don’t demoralise them.

I always prefer to talk from my own experience than hypothetically, so I will describe how important my spirit has been to my own political life and how this has shaped my activism in the Labour Party.

A personal journey

I first became interested in politics after long conversations with my dad about Margaret Thatcher and after hearing Tony Benn speaking about how it was possible to create a more just and decent society. This fired me up and I became a member of the Labour Party when I was 16.

However, when I went to a few party meetings, my spirit was dimmed by my experience of seeing bare-faced factionalism. I became aware that politics was being hijacked by egomaniacs who were less interested in changing anything than in keeping their positions in a clique. This turned me off getting active.

It wasn’t long before I was not involved in any political party. Instead I spent my time partying, listening to reggae music, supporting Fulham and, like all people who have lost hope, trying to become a stand-up comic. My time away from politics lasted sixteen years – except for demonstrating against the invasion of Iraq.

What inspired me to get back into politics was the death of Michael Foot in March 2010.

I was on the treadmill in the gym during my lunch hour at work when I saw tributes and clips of Michael Foot on the telly. I saw the pictures of him with his stick on Hampstead Heath and of the ‘donkey jacket’ at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony. It made me think what a principled man he was – devoid of ego – and how he was not given a chance by the biased media. I thought about how a good man had been taken away from us and there was no-one like him in politics. This made me think of rejoining Labour and trying to promote the same type of politics.

Yet again I was not inspired to get involved in politics for any material reason. It was more like a spiritual decision.

When I started to attend local Labour Party meetings I found that there was often a tendency for some people to dominate (as I’d seen in the 1980s) and that ideas about encouraging other people to get involved were not popular with many office holders.

I was frustrated at the lack of opportunity I had to do anything locally. My plans to design and distribute regular newsletters to constituents were vetoed by a committee, my plan to increase party membership was also scuppered (I was actually told to ‘f*** off and leave the party’) and soon I was voted out as vice-chair membership – there was even an organised campaign to stop me doing anything.

However, these events did not break my spirit. I realised that there were other ways I could make a difference. If some people in my constituency were going to block me, then I would have to work outside that.

I set up Stand up for Labour and it has been a perfect vehicle for me to try to encourage more people to get involved in politics and to keep people inspired who are already active. The problem that I had for many years was that I felt isolated and that no-one else felt the same way as me. I’m sure that is the same for many other people. Now I have provided an affordable and entertaining way for Labour supporters and members to come out and feel connected. It didn’t exist before I started it.

The #JC4PM tour that was started this year took this to another level. We had over a thousand people in Kentish Town for the first event in February and it was magical when Jeremy Corbyn made a surprise appearance. Anyone who was in the room that night will have felt inspired by the music, the poetry, the comedy and the speeches. And we toured England, Scotland and Wales and the response from the audience was fantastic. These are the kind of events that make us stronger.

I combined politics with curry by putting on a few ‘Curry for Corbyn’ events in my local area. These were designed to give everyone a chance to talk about what is happening politically, get things off their chest and then eat heartily. The discussion was not set up in such a formal way as political meetings and everyone was given an opportunity to put their points across. I am sure these made people feel more connected with each other too.

At the end of this year I helped to produce a Christmas single once more aimed at raising morale. ‘JC4PM for me’ was a lot of fun. The cheesiness of the music and the video were an attempt to show humour and carry a message about Jeremy Corbyn that the media couldn’t sensor. We had plans to get it into the charts (well you have to aim high), but we didn’t really get the backing we needed to make this happen.

Fear and cynicism is our enemy

When Jeremy Corbyn stood to become leader of the Labour Party in 2015 he inspired hundreds of thousands of people to get active in politics again. The spirit of hope was clear for all to see at rallies across the country and on social media. People felt energised about a new form of straightforward, honest politics.

We always knew that the political establishment – and the establishment generally – would do all they could to undermine this spirit. We’ve seen daily attacks in the mainstream media on Jeremy Corbyn and his allies and we had the attempted coup in the summer plus the leadership challenge. These were all aimed at knocking us off course.

The main thing that the establishment wish to do is to produce fear and division in us.

They want us to be wary of what we do, to worry about what the media will say and to end up by bickering amongst ourselves. And it’s happening. I have no idea how to stop it but I would like to suggest that – instead of getting drawn into personality clashes – we all look at organising events that bring us together and raise our spirits.

Events I helped organise in 2016

Stand up for Labour gigs

• Eastbourne
• Paddington
• Coventry
• Banbury
• Camberley
• Letchworth
• Catford
• Loughborough
• Twickenham
• Swadlincote
• Camden
• Nottingham
• Hertford
• Liverpool
• Westminster
• Chiswick
• Bolton
• Chesham
• Hemel Hempstead
• Ealing
• Keele

#JC4PM gigs

• Kentish Town
• Bristol
• Croydon
• Newcastle
• Edinburgh
• Bournemouth
• Sheffield
• Cambridge
• Manchester
• Swansea (picured above)
• Kentish Town
• Cardiff
• Manchester
• Brighton
• Newcastle
• Doncaster
• Liverpool (2)
• Birmingham
• Wakefield
• Conway Hall

Three Curry for Corbyn events in Hounslow

Before 4pm on Friday, I was optimistic that the Corbyn Christmas single, ‘JC4PM for me’ would make it into the top 40 of the pre-Christmas official charts (the Christmas chart is announced this coming Friday).

My positivity was based on the fact that it was in the top 5 downloads on Amazon for over four days and had even reached number two on that chart. This was fantastic not just for the fact it was high up the Amazon chart, but was also raising money for foodbanks via the Trussell Trust.

I had spoken to someone who had a Top 20 hit earlier in the week and they were confident it would get a good position in the charts.

However, having listened to the chart countdown from 4pm, it gradually dawned on me that we were not likely to appear.

As it turned out, ‘JC4PM for me’ didn’t make the top 40. In fact, it didn’t even reach the top 100.

The reason for this is streaming – mostly from Spotify and Deezer.

Since July 2014, 100 streams has counted as equivalent to one single (download or physical single) in the chart compilation process. I had imagined that this would make little difference, however, on reflection, it is clear that shops, hairdressers, cafes all over the country continually replaying a set playlist of Christmas singles and the top 40 chart hits has led to a dearth of any alternative singles reaching the charts.

It is highly unlikely that a single such as ‘Killing in the name of’ would ever make number one with these new rules for singles – how many cafes that play background music would play thrash metal. And, similarly, how many of hairdressers would play a song supporting the Labour leader? It might upset the customers!

As a result of this rather painful lesson, Robb Johnson and the Corbynistas are asking people if people can not only download from Amazon here, iTunes here and Google Play here, but that those with Spotify or Deezer accounts stream our song continually (they can even have the sound down). Perhaps, we could make it to the top 100? That would be an achievement bearing in mind the situation!

If you are on Spotify, you can find the song here.

If you are on Deezer, it is here.

We would also suggest adding Joe Solo and the Hatfield Brigade and the Jo Cox single to a looped playlist.

I’m writing this blog in a greasy spoon cafe in Brentford where the plasma TV is tuned into a music channel. The channel is churning out Christmas songs from the past, mixed with singles in the charts. I’ve just seen Slade, Band Aid, the X-Factor winner and Chris Rea’s ‘Driving Home for Christmas’.

No one is watching the telly other than me and I’m only watching with a sense of incredulity: the Christmas single I put together with Robb Johnson and the Corbynistas could soon be above some of these songs in the charts.

This will not only show how strong the support is for Jeremy Corbyn, but will be a considerable help to foodbanks (via the Trussell Trust).

At the moment it is number four on the Amazon Best Sellers chart and is the number two ‘hot new release’. Calculating the chart involves totalling digital downloads, streaming data and sales of CDs and vinyl. I could have totally misjudged this but ‘JC4pM for me’ is highly likely to be in the top 40 if the Amazon download figure is high enough. (I’d like to add that I’m not keen to support Amazon in any way but many more people have an account with them than the other providers.)

But what is the chance that the radio or TV music channels will actually play ‘JC4PM for me’ if it makes the charts? Would the powers that be try to stop a song that includes the line ‘I’m voting Jeremy Corbyn’ and talks about political issues like austerity from being broadcast?

Most importantly, would the BBC include it on the radio show that announces the chart at 4pm on Friday? When ‘Ding Dong The Witch is Dead’ reached the charts they refused to play it and put a short excerpt on a news broadcast instead!

If you are interested in finding out what the BBC will do – and want to make it happen – you can download the single by clicking on the links below.

You can also download from more than one provider at a time to increase the chart position and each costs between 69p and £1:

Amazon

itunes

Deezer

Google Play

You can also stream it on Spotify.