Tribune,
9 April 1992
Paul
Anderson was at Labour's rally in
Sheffield, with all its razzmatazz. But the real campaign has been rather more mundane
“Yesterday
was another day of achievement for Britain and British actors at the Oscar ceremonies
in Hollywood," John Smith told the thousands of Labour supporters in the
Sheffield Arena for Labour's "Rally of the Decade” last Wednesday.
"A
triumph for Anthony Hopkins that is well deserved," he went on. "But
I have to admit that one long-running saga failed even to get a nomination.
Starring John Major, the Conservatives' very own box-office disaster - Honey, I
Shrunk the Economy."
At
least it was better than John Major's feeble line in cinematic humour when he
warned of a "Nightmare on Kin nock Street". It wasn't very good,
though. Nor, frankly, were any of the other gags at the Labour extravaganza.
The music was pretty dire too.
But
none of that really mattered. It didn't matter either that the giant hall
wasn't quite as full as the party had hoped, with rows of empty seats at the
back and along the sides. It didn't even matter that the harsh acoustics and
lighting and the giant video screen behind the podium gave most of the speakers
a sinister demagogic air.
This
was the Labour Party with the scent of power tingling in its nostrils. Nothing
in the world could have stopped every Labour-supporter present from
experiencing the show as a runaway success. Three opinion polls earlier in the
day had given Labour the sort of lead it needs to win a thumping Commons majority.
No one knew as the rally got under way that the next batch of polls, while
still giving Labour a lead, were less favourable. Everyone, from Neil Kinnock
down to the 10,000 or so ordinary Labour Party members who had come to the
rally by coach and car from all over the country, was in triumphalist mood.
The
audience lapped up everything, no matter how routine or corny. They cheered
when the Shadow Cabinet marched down the central aisle waving and smiling, they
went wild when the giant video screen showed Neil and Glenys arriving outside
in a helicopter, they erupted into ecstatic whoops when the spotlight picked
out the Kinnocks making their way into the arena, shaking hands, saluting the
crowd, embracing what appeared to be long-lost friends.
John
Smith gave a typically competent speech. Roy Hattersley sounded positively
radical in his egalitarianism. There were endorsements from show business
celebrities - Mick Hucknall, the singer with Simply Red, Steve Cram, the
athlete, Nigel Kennedy, the violinist, Stephen Fry, the actor. Barbara Castle
nearly brought the house down when she declared: "This is like 1945. They
never dreamed we could win then and we did."
But
the climax was Kinnock, cocky and expansive – “Well, all right!” he shouted at
the audience as he came on stage, Mick Jagger-style. There followed a rousing
attack on the Tory record concentrating on education and housing policies:
"The decent people of Britain are revolted by: Government that has broken
the consensus of 40 years, a government that has created poverty as a matter of
policy just as it has used unemployment as the main instrument of economic
management," he said. He even tried another film joke. "Recall their
impeccable timing on the day that Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar in Hollywood,
when they described me as ‘Hannibal’,” he grinned. Needless to say, it worked a
treat.
* *
*
Sheffield
got plenty of coverage on the television and in all the papers, not least
because it was the glitziest and biggest political rally ever held in Britain.
It also produced some useful film clips for use in Monday's party election
broadcast.
But
its main purpose was to boost Labour morale before the last week of the
campaign. In 1987, the big razzmatazz rally of the Labour campaign took place
in London on the Sunday before polling day - and it effectively marked the end
of Labour's national campaign. After the rally, Labour sat exhausted on its
laurels for four days, watching the Liberal-Social Democrat Alliance, which it
thought it had effectively squeezed, claw its way back in the opinion polls at
Labour's expense.
This
time, Labour has done all it can to intensify, the campaign over the last
week, making a particular point of trying to woo wavering centre voters.
The
most spectacular part of this was the relaunch of Labour's constitutional
reform proramme by Neil Kinnock and Roy Hattersley at the end of last week,
which has dominated the agenda for the heavy newspapers ever since.
In
many ways, however, the effort on the ground in the marginals has been more
important. By the end of last week, Labour had shifted nearly all its resources
and personnel into its target seats and had let its local activists know that
there should be no let-up before the ballot boxes were sealed.
Labour's
daily agents' briefing, Winning Post, made
the strategy clear: "Momentum means increased campaign visibility
relative to the contenders - showing that we are moving forwards the last
three weeks. We must be positive, urgent and attractive.” Parties were urged to
increase their presence on the streets, "blitz" selected areas with
propaganda, balloons and stickers, get as many posters into windows as possible
and continue canvassing right up to the last day of the campaign.
"The
Liberal vote is very soft," the briefing went on. "The chances are
that you won't have a high number of defined Liberal supporters showing up in
your canvass figures." In the final
week, local Labour parties were directed to "concentrate strongly
on the key issues of concern to Liberal voters: health, the economy and particularly
education”, while emphasising that "the choice is between a Labour government and a
Conservative government". In Scotland and Wales, the same tactics were
recommended to deal with the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru.
According
to Labour headquarters, the local parties in the marginals have responded
vigorously to the call to arms. "It's going very well indeed. Very positive,"
said Sally Morgan, Walworth Road's key seat co-ordinator, early this week.
* * *
Of
course, no one will know until the results are in whether such optimism is
justified. But, whatever the result, Labour has good reason to be pleased with
the way that the campaign has gone. Although in 1987 Labour had, on the whole,
a better national campaign than the Tories, the party failed to make its
national campaign timetable dominant, and locally Labour's efforts were patchy.
Not
everything has gone completely according to plan this time. The “war of
Jennifer's ear" over Labour's health party election broadcast a fortnight
ago threw Labour severely off balance. Although the party recovered, the
affair meant that it has since been unable to give health the prominence that
had originally been sketched into the schedule. The furore also eclipsed one
Labour attempt to make an issue of poll tax (although the party had another go
last weekend) and upset the timing of its push on education policy, which
looked dangerously like a desperate attempt to catch up with the Liberal
Democrats by the time it came last week.
Nevertheless,
Labour has dominated the campaign agenda nationally as it was never able to in
1987, and the Tories' undoubted incompetence is by no means the only reason.
From the shadow budget onwards, Labour's initiatives have been detailed,
sensible and fully costed, forcing the Tories to respond rather than develop
their own campaigning themes. Labour's senior politicians have been better
briefed than at any time in living memory, and they have come across as
confident and competent on television and radio: gaffes have been relatively
few and far between. Perhaps most important, the early stages of the campaign
this time did not rely over-heavily on Kinnock, the focus of the 1987 campaign.
As a result, he has looked much fresher than the other party leaders since
being moved to the centre of Labour's campaign in the final week.
But the main difference with 1987 is the way in which Labour has
managed to intervene locally. In the past five years, communications between
headquarters and local parties have been transformed. Everything from poster
distribution to policy briefings has been better in this campaign than ever
before. If there's no room for complacency, there's plenty for pride in a job
done as well as it could be done. Let's hope that it has all been enough.