Peter Kenyon

Salient messages: Labour kept the cashpoints working or GB tears?

I'm grateful to one of my NEC colleagues for suggesting at our last meeting that Labour should remind voters that a Labour government led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown kept Britain's cash-points working when the banking crisis struck.

If we could afford posters it would make an interesting visual for the nation's billboards, compared to the notorious Saatchi & Saatchi 'Labour isn't working' campaign in the run up to the 1979 election. Why not stickers? Sponsored by each of the banks that was rescued? Wouldn't that help remind the electorate of the realities of market forces on each of their ATMs, and Labour's role in keeping the ATMs in service?

I can't help thinking those would send much more salient messages about the Labour Party than news that Brown wept in an interview with Piers Morgan to be broadcast next week. I'm wondering how many other people think private grief is best kept.....private.

Labour to win next election: G Brown

The Guardian newspaper is carrying an interview by Katharine Viner, deputy editor with Prime Minister Gordon Brown. I have just read it. Key angles for me are:

"To be honest, you could walk away from all of this tomorrow," he said. "I'm not interested in what accompanies being in power. I wouldn't worry if I never returned to all those places – Downing Street, Chequers … And it would probably be good for my children."

Note the use of the second person 'you'. So I take this as a warning - don't push me too far. Well, I'm sorry Prime Minister, but I think you are going to continue to be sorely tried between now and the next General Election. This leads me to the section of the interview in which he thinks Labour is going to win that election. The Guardian reports:

He thinks under his leadership Labour can win the next election, and perhaps because he's seen the tide turn so quickly, he thinks it can turn again. He is sure that, in time, his measures will turn the economy around. And he really believes that the age we're living in is a progressive one.

Mmmm...I think the electorate is going to need a little more persuading. A reference to the foot-soldiers would have been nice too.

Labour reshuffle: saving the best for last?

Media frenzy generates its own momentum. Today's resignations and leaks are being written off as signalling chaos. I prefer to think of clearing the decks and saving the best news until last. Yours deluded, but loyal.

Wanted: Labour Party members willing to speak out

Today there was a refreshing diversity of Labour Party members interviewed on national media putting across positive Labour messages. Check out the Today programme, World at One, the BBC News Channel and BBC 5 Live. We need more PPCs, local councilllors and party activists willing to go on the airwaves to get our message across - vote Labour.

Hot tip - check with the Labour Party Press Office first.

Self-confessed Brownite agrees 10p rethink needed

Self-confessed Brownite columnist Jackie Ashley writing in today's Guardian concludes:

Maybe the country has had enough of him, though I suspect it remains a slightly fairer-minded place than the current hysteria suggests. In any event, the sensible thing for Labour is to stop this public feuding. The dignified thing for Brown is to refocus on the issues that matter to people, confront problems like the 10p tax rate and the recent immigration report, and plug gamely on. Brown has been indecisive, but I don't think he's a coward. At the very least, a display of grit and stoicism would remind people why so recently they found much to admire in this complex, struggling man.

Not exactly expressed with much expectation of delivery. But she captures the quiet frustration felt by any Labour Party member or supporter fearful of the Tories regaining power. Alistair Darling has to have a 10p tax losers' compensation package drawn up, and Hazel Blear's needs support for a public housing acquisition and building programme to complement interest rate measures to reduce the risk of negative equity, and increase supply at affordable levels of rent.  And that other festering issue - 42-day detention (not mentioned by Ashley)? Do government business managers seriously believe that this is achieveable, desirable or likely to encourage people to flock back to Labour as members?

Members have a role in putting some pressure on Labour's elected representatives, especially those on the payroll vote. Time to mobilise.