THE CAMPAIGN: DAY 5
‘The medium is the message’ — Marshall McLuhan
Today was massive — I’d shot a video with my friends the other night and shared it with Labour members today. It’s not exactly Ken Loach but I think it’s a decent effort and once we’ve looked at the view count after the weekend, I think we’ll know if it’s my campaign has achieved lift off (we — I’ve got a volunteer helping me on facebook now, she’s more skilled than me, so that makes sense, discovering much kindness around the Labour party, I love it!).
I made a lot of noise in my pitch about the importance of giving local ‘Labour people’ a voice through video (not just the candidate and members). Decent quality videos are more likely to get shared beyond the Labour membership and they have the power to make local people feel good / OK / excited about voting Labour (you don’t need to be Marshall McLuhan to know what Craig Whittaker would feel about that 😂).
If it hasn’t racked up a couple of hundred views by Monday [ambitious targets are OK] I’ll just have to take a long look at my campaign and try something new. It’s not a big deal when things don’t work — they often don’t, that’s life.
The employee co-owned business I have built in Mytholmroyd has achieved jobs and growth for this area by encouraging frank assessments of performance in a kind and nurturing environment. I’ve fought for equality and kindness all my life — I can tell you it’s an epic struggle to live those values in UK manufacturing sector 🙄, but I know that — more than anything else — it’s also what’s made us successful. It’s not just ‘OK’ to take a hard look at performance and be honest with ourselves and each other about what we see — it’s ‘essential’.
This blog will be back on Monday— I’ll still be working on the campaign, but this blog is only a ‘nice to have’, it’s the weekend and I’ve got a 4 year old, a 6 year old and a partner who also need me. Let’s hope wining campaigns are built on candidates who connect with voters because they’re familiar, identifiable and human not machines🤞🏽.
It’s been a full on week, taking on the local political establishment and building grassroots support for change. Change is coming – hopefully on Saturday next week 🙌🏽.
Have a great weekend and thanks for all your support this week — I literally couldn’t do this without you 😍.
