REPOST: How to Fail as a Political Party: 26/09/10

This is my post at the time Ed beat David. It gives me no great pleasure to note I was right. Sad day for Labour.

1. Ignore what the public want: look to keep the peace in your own party at the cost of becoming unelectable
2. Make sure the election process is long enough for the unions to form around a candidate that is weak enough not to take them on
3. Make sure the Unions have a vote that outweighs their true influence in the country
4. Elect someone that is young and untried
5. Ignore the older brother who has a welcome reformist approach and is obviously the more able communicator
6. Go back to the old party ways, following the policies of the last failed Prime Minister rather than the new approach from the earlier successful and long lasting Prime Minister
7. Look forward to a number of years of debating failed left wing election proposals
8. Look forward to a long time as an opposition party.

VOTE!

When you drive to the polling station on Thursday, your way will not be blocked. Your children will not be kidnapped whilst you are out. There will be no indiscriminate gunfire as you queue. No one will take you into the booth and force you to put a cross by a certain name.

We live in a free democracy. But we need to keep it that way. Don’t assume for a moment that your vote doesn’t matter. No vote is wasted. It’s a statement that we’re free. Free to vote. Free to choose.

Far beyond our own political views, beyond the choice of a candidate or the success of a candidate, is the fact that we are free to vote in the first place. A privilege many in the world today do not have.

Don’t squander the chance. Don’t throw away your right to vote. Don’t stay home. Go to the polling station. Put your cross on the ballot paper.

Vote on Thursday.