The memoirs of a General Election Campaign

How do you deal with the BNP?

2010-04-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

One of the most 'en-vogue' debates between academics and politicians since the Euro elections last year has been how to deal with the BNP.

I was recently invited to debate this at my uni against the President of the SU - he believes you control the BNP by attacking them at every opportunity, throwing eggs at them and constantly reminding everyone that they are a fascist, racist nazi party. I disagree wholeheartedly with this tactic.

Whether we like it or not, the BNP are a legitimate political party, and by recently changing their rules to allow all to join their ranks - they have banished our last hopes of controlling them with election law.

The one thing the BNP are brilliant at; is advertising to its target market - it loves to paint itself as the victim of oppression, the last remaining British Lion, tugging at people's heart-strings by appealing to the same part of them that made every man empathise with Stewart Pierce when he scored the penalty in Euro '96 finally expelling the daemons of 6 years previously - The same lion hearted attitude that still makes us well up when we hear the speeches on D-Day, or catapults celebrities like Jade Goody to the top of everyone's reading list - we as a nation love an underdog fighting for their cause.

Because of this, we cannot fight the BNP at their own game, we need to take them outside of their comfort zone and get them talking about things people listen to with a logical hat on - Surveys have always shown people care about their money and family more than they do immigration, and while every other party was busy planning a fiscally sound budget - the BNP were in a pub somewhere writing down what they think sounds good - "Get rid of trendy teaching" or "stop kids being obese" these aren't real policies, they are catchphrases written on a napkin and not properly explained - challenge them on those. The last time children were slim was WW2 - do you plan on rationing food again MR BNP man? etc...

When I was much younger there was a boy who used to play football with us all in the streets, he was much younger than us - but tried really hard, he would always push for us to take him to play for the local team when we did every Sunday, we made every excuse we could to keep him away from the embarrassment he would suffer playing with the bigger boys, but the excuses just encouraged him and his family of supporters to try harder and push with more vigour, until eventually we gave in - we took the unsuspecting boy to train with us for a few sessions, and eventually he got his chance in a match - he lasted 10 minutes before he was taken off again. What he hadn't realised was that somewhere in our heads we didn't see him as real competition so when we were playing on the streets we never played to our best, or our strengths - but in a match environment he had to prove he deserved to be there... I don't remember playing football with that boy ever again...

What I am saying is - if we as a people treat the BNP with the same probing, doubtful intelligence as we do the Labour or Tory parties, they will only have 2 options, 1) to change and evolve into a 'real' political party, similar to Labour in the early 1900's or 2) give up the ghost, and leave the politicking to the real parties.

I mentioned earlier that I don't approve of violence towards them, or egg throwing - that's because they are too wise to it! Try to find a google image of a BNP riot - it is always the anti-BNP protesters that are caught being violent - the picture at the top is of one of the management team of my Uni's SU looking like a thug, this picture and others like it may even bring more people to the BNP cause!

Don't try to fight them on the streets, invite them in and then beat them on your terms.

PS. only a fool would underestimate them, 1 in 16 people voted BNP in the European elections last year.

Today’s Date: Sunday April 11th, D-24 days to Election

2010-04-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

I have just caught up with the weeks news (I told you its been busy) and I just wanted to air my disgust at the Labour Postcard that was sent out to cancer suffers. If you don’t know the story read it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8614075.stm

If we ignore for a second all of the ethical issues about how they generated the list to send this postcard to 250,000 of the most venerable people in our communities – Lets focus for a second on the fact that the party actually sent a leaflet almost claiming that people would die if they didn’t win the next election!?! What crazy idiot sitting in an office thought that would be a good idea? Maybe it was Harriet Harman; sound like the kind of thing she’d approve...

If you fancy fighting fire with fire in your own area, Harriet Harman released a document this year proving that under this labour gov’t the life expectancy of a poor person is 13 years lower than a middle earner – put that on a postcard. Party for the people my ass!

The Campaign - up till now!

2010-04-11T19:05:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the campaign up to now has been a massive blur, one day has ebbed effortlessly into the next and all the time the only thing I seem to be doing is worrying about the battery on my Blackberry, although to highlight a few ‘stand out points’ from the first 6 days of the campaign:

Delivery of thousands of leaflets – As a small association, we have managed to shift close to 40,000 leaflets within the first week, with the help of the Fox Hunting lobby group, Tamils, Friends, Family and even occasionally local Councillors. (Anyone who has ever tried this will tell you it is quite a job)

I have campaigned with the PPC solidly, starting at 7am and working straight through to around 9/10pm – sitting in his ‘battle bus’ (which for the record is a transit van we had decorated with Conservative Logos and the candidates face – not to mention the mega phones we attached to the roof) with his pre recorded voice calling for change over the top of an already overplayed Elton John classic.

Finally – being a target seat close to London, we have been and will continue to be, blessed with regular appearances from quality MP’s – Andrew Mitchell MP and his team came to see us and invited us to dinner (and met some residents in the mix) and the wonderfully eccentric MEP Geoffrey Van Orden and his family – seriously how did he end up with such a pretty Wife and Daughter? – came to help us campaign in the town centre, on his own birthday no less. That’s dedication to the cause!

Oh and Quotes from Labour supports that are worth mentioning:

Him: “I’m not voting Conservative because of his expenses”

Me: “He didn’t have any expenses, that is our Labour MP you’re talking about”

Him: “oh well – I still won’t vote for you”

And my favourite so far:

Him: “No way I’m voting Conservative, 1938 – I lost a leg ‘cos of Churchill. Ill never forgive him for going to war” – WOW, how do I argue with that??

Ok – that brings me up to about now, Lots going on over the next few weeks, So I shall try to post something every day! (get stuffed if you want photo’s though – that is way too much effort)

My Background!

2010-04-11T19:04:00.001-07:00

And so we are on to my favourite subject; me!

I feel like I should write all of my past achievements, listing with enormous detail all of my political accomplishments like some Tory PPC, My many years in the armed forces after leaving Eton and Oxford – before inventing some world changing social mobility scheme which transforms the lives of people on a daily basis. However I am young, and have none of that – so instead I will list what achievements and moments of successes I imagine I will have completed before I retire.

· Worked on many hugely successful election campaigns
· Worked as chief of staff for a well respected MP
· Ran a 6^th form college in one of the most deprived parts of England, transforming it into one of the best colleges in the country
· Advisor to the Centre for Social Justice
· Worked with an MEP in Brussels, finding the best education models from the whole of Europe and improving them farther
· Elected as an MP for a Safe London Borough – quickly rising up the ranks before becoming education minister and reforming the whole UK education system
· Retiring with my model wife (who has supported me through every affair with secretary’s named Helga) 3 Children and fleet of Jag’s to a tax heaven somewhere warm, only returning to England for family parties and to collect my peerage.

So as you can see, I intend to be a busy boy, still what is life without dreams.

These are the day-by-day memoirs of a twenty-odd year old student working on the 2010 general election campaign.

2010-04-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

These memoirs are being written because after the first few days of campaigning I realised come May the 6^th, I am not going to remember a single detail of the campaign – so I am pre-empting my nostalgia. They will not be particularly well written, I am no Iain Dale – and I don’t doubt for one second they will be biased! Now that all the disclaimers are out of the way – let’s get on with my rambling...

P.S. if you do want to read a good political blog, go here: http://iaindale.blogspot.com/