All to play for...

Labour List has just published my latest blog:

As the summer haze begins to disappear, children return to school and swimming costumes are put away for another year, the Westminster village (like Brigadoon) will yawn and wake up. Politics will once again come to dominate the pages of newspapers as sporting achievements begin, like a moon, to wane (notwithstanding the 10 days of Paralympic power and grace that will shake up attitudes to disability and discrimination – I hope).

Whilst we have the shuffle board game on the decks of a large ice bound ship to look forward to, and then the party conferences, we have only a few weeks to go until November 15th when a whole cohort of quasi presidential politicians will be elected to run our local policing and crime services. With the Electoral Reform Society predicting turnouts of less than 20%, there is all to play for....

I won't reprint it all here - you can read the full text here. In sum, the article lays out some of the elements of PCC campaigns that I hope we will see Labour candidates using in the few weeks left before the November elections.

And as I say, there is all to play for especially as I read a follow up blog from the Electoral Reform Society (after I wrote the piece): for some people low turnout is an opportunity... They go on to quote Tom Waterhouse from his Rhombus Communications blog:

For any candidate hoping to become a Police Crime Commissioner, the prospect of an 18.5% turnout should grab your attention like a blue-flashing light in your rear view mirror. Elections on that kind of turnout means your “short campaign” activities and polling day operations will be absolutely vital, because the lower the turnout, the lower margin of victory for the winning candidate.

How many Labour Activists have spotted the blue flashing lights?