Before the results – some observations from the 2017 General Election
I love elections. While I might have complained when I first heard that Theresa May was taking the country to the polls, it wasn’t long before I found myself getting stuck in campaigning in my local community, and implementing our (hastily assembled) election plans at work. Who knows what will happen on Thursday evening, but before the …
Why campaigning charities shouldn’t leave the pitch during the election
There are lots of article going around at the moment that suggests that campaigning charities should just walk off the pitch during the election campaign. From weekly articles suggesting that the lobbying act is stopping charities speaking out – the latest here which suggest that some social care charities have felt they couldn’t speak out …
in actions, e-campaigning
What happened when I said ‘YES’ to every email from an online campaign platform?
What would happen if I just said YES. Inspired by Glyn Thomas who signed up to 100 charity emails and finishing reading Analytical Activism by David Karfp, which looks at the approaches online platforms use, I set myself a little experiment. What would happen If I signed up to the email lists of some of the …
Preparing for June 8th – some quick thoughts for campaigners
Like many others, I didn’t wake up expecting that a General Election would be called today – but it has been. I wrote this ahead of the 2015 General Election (and perhaps as importantly this after the 2015 election) which contains lots of advice and ideas that I think are as relevant today with the …
in tactics
Needed: New approaches to campaigning…
As a child I was a huge fan of Zelda – I’d play for (my parents would argue waste) hours on my Game Boy, moving Link around the island, trying to unlock the instruments that he needed to wake the Wind Fish. What’s that got to do with campaigning? Well with everything that’s been happening …
in evaluation, tactics
After Article 50. Some questions for Remain campaigners
Last Wednesday, Article 50 was triggered, and already the papers are full of headlines about the return of Blue Passports (and worse). It’s getting me wound up. But over the last week, I’ve found myself on a few occasion lamenting the apparent lack of any effectively organised campaign against ‘hard’ Brexit, and quietly getting frustrated …
Packing for the journey ahead – links from Campaigning Forum talk
I’m really excited to be in Oxford today, speaking at the Campaigning Forum (formerly the eCampaigning Forum), the annual gathering of campaigners from across UK and beyond. I’m going be speaking on ‘Packing for the journey ahead – 7 essentials campaigners need to have to journey into the future’. In the talk, I’m planning on …
in government, How To
Meet the Lords – lessons for campaigners
For the last few weeks, political geeks like me will have been watching BBC2’s Meet The Lords. It’s the follow-up to the Inside the Commons series from a couple of years ago, but this time focusing on the second chamber. For campaigners, wherever you stand on reform of the House of Lords, the programme shows …
What academics can tell us about why some protests succeed (and others don’t)
With the rise of protests in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in the US, it’s been interesting to see the emergence of articles looking at the findings of academic studies into protest movements and campaigning. Because they’re not tied to a single issue, they’re able to step back and look at the trends and …
What it’s really like as a Junior Minister
I’ve been enjoying Hinterland, the memoir of former MP and Minister, Chris Mullin in the last few weeks, so it’s reminded me of this post I wrote in 2009 after reading the first volume of his diaries. I’ve always highly recommended Mullin’s diaries for anyone understanding how Parliament really works (I’d also recommend Power Trip by …
mrtombaker
Head of Mobilisation at Save the Children, was Head of Campaigns at Bond, co-founder Campaign Bootcamp, blog about campaigning because I'm passionate about seeing more campaigns win, election geek (and former Labour Party activist), interested in monitoring and evaluation, blog is all my own views. Prone to bad spelling!