Category Archive For "political intellegence"
What my tweets could tell us about the political, economic, social, technological landscape for campaigners…
Doing a PEST (political, economic, social, technological) analysis can be a great way for campaigners to look at the external landscape that they’re campaigning in – so as we head into a new year I decided to look back through the 100s of tweets I’d written in 2018 to see if there were some trends …
Can we stop the inevitable? Some thoughts on the theory of change behind stopping Brexit
I’ve got a campaign frustration that I need to be honest about – what is the theory of change behind the ongoing ‘stop Brexit’ campaign. Now put aside for the moment if going back on the original referendum is a good thing, both for the public faith in democracy and if it’s legally possible, but …
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 …
Do we need a new map? How the referendum changed the political landscape for campaigners.
For those concerned that this is becoming a blog about political theory. Fear not. Normal service will soon resume. But a skill for any campaigner is considering how the changing external context is affecting the issue that they’re campaigning on. As a result over the last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about what …
In/Out, Leave/Remain – the EU Referendum and what it means for campaigners
So the starting gun for the EU Referendum has been fired, and for the next 4 months it’s going to dominate the political discourse. So what does that mean for campaigners? Here are a few initial thoughts. It’ll shape all political decisions – I’ve highlighted the comment from Tim Montgomery below before, but I think it’s …
Lessons from the Field – my reflections on 5 years organising for the Labour Party
Last month I shared a few thoughts about what issue campaigner can learn from party political campaigning. A few people encouraged me to do the opposite post, but as I started writing I discovered this isn’t really lessons for political parties from campaigning organisations, it’s more my reflections from 5 years as a volunteer campaign …
The US Presidential election and the future of campaigning?
It’s the US election season, and suddenly anyone who’s watched an episode or two of the West Wing will become an expert on the best approach to win the 270 Electoral College seats needed, the opportunities presented by the Michigan Primary and the role of Super Delegates in a tight convention. While predicting the result of …
Lobbying the Lords….
A review of two excellent campaign tools focused on influencing members of the House of Lords. Unlike their counterparts in the House of Commons, members of the House of Lords can be notoriously hard to campaign towards. There are over 800 of them, with some as regular attenders, while others who rarely turn up. Some …
Holding successful events with MPs in Parliament
Conference season is upon us and many campaigners will be packing their bags to head off to Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. But as Chloe Stables notes in an excellent post about making the most of attending conference they can be ‘expensive, hectic and occasionally frustrating‘ but other options for engaging with MPs do exist. Back …
Five for Friday 24th June….
It’s Friday, so here are five great articles I’ve read in the last few weeks that are worth reading in your lunch break….. 1. Research from the US suggested that ‘LinkedIn Is An Untapped Treasure Trove For Political Campaigns‘ because it draws older, more educated citizens–voters who are far more reliable when it come to casting …
mrtombaker
Director of Campaigns and Organising at Save the Children, previously worked for Bond, Tearfund and Christian Aid, co-founder Campaign Bootcamp, blog about campaigning because I'm passionate about seeing more campaigns win, election geek (and recovering Labour Party activist), interested in monitoring and evaluation, this blog is all my own views. Prone to bad spelling!