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 …
in tactics
How to – Organise a supporter Lobby of Parliament
Some of my excellent team at Save the Children have spent the last 3 months organising a lobby of Parliament in support of our Big Futures early years campaign calling for more invest in nursery teachers. Yesterday, we had an amazing day with over 60+ supporters coming along, meeting with there MPs and talking about …
in learning
Leadership in campaigns – links for Sheila McKechnie Foundation ‘Masterclass’
I was invited to speak today at a Sheila McKechnie Foundation ‘Masterclass’ on leadership in campaigns – mobilising internally and externally. It was a fun session sharing alongside Claire Hazelgrove from Friends of the Earth, and a group of 20 or so campaign leaders from across the campaigning community in the UK. We looked at …
in government, tactics
The Parliament Petition Site – a missed opportunity
At the time of writing the petition to Prevent Donald Trump from making a State Visit to the United Kingdom has reached 1,500,000 signatures – and I’m sure by the time you read this it’ll have grown further.( This site is a nice for tracking how quickly they’re growing). And while it’s great that people are …
in lists
Five for Friday – President Obama Special Edition
Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know that I’m a big fan of President Obama – so today isn’t going to be a good day. I’ve spent some of the last fortnight working my way through some of his final speeches, and through it they’ve reminded me of some powerful lessons for campaigners. So as he …
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!