Blog
-
The run into May 2026 …. Winning the Slo-Mo rural general election
Hywel Lloyd, Co-founder Over the past year we have highlighted that much of the elections in 2025 and 2026 amount to a Slo-Mo rural general election. Now we have the results from May 2025 there is, as ever, an opportunity for learning. With learning and improvement being key elements of a mission-based approach, we hope the government…
-
Rural England – your time has come…
Back in 2019 we wrote a call for action at the local elections of that year: A Manifesto for 2019: Town’s of England, your time has come. With a new Labour government experiencing a ‘do you really like rural England?’ situation akin to that of the first Blair administration, now is surely the time to apply ourselves…
-
Labour and the seaside towns – time for a Minister for coastal communities
The era of easy and quick fixes is long gone. From a Labour coastal perspective one part of the answer would be to appoint one of its ministers – from the local government or DCMS team – as a minister with a special responsibility for the seaside, to work across Government to coordinate policies and…
-
Keeping Communities of Coast & Country in the minds of the government – A Labour Government…
Hywel Lloyd We hope all of you, our friends, followers and supporters have had an opportunity for a restful summer, enjoying being governed by a Labour Government that not only wants to govern but to govern well. That is a great platform for making progress for everyone in the UK, be they in a community…
-
Labour launches plan to tackle rural crime wave
Paul Richards Ask any of the Labour candidates for Police and Crime Commissioner in next week’s election about the top issues in rural areas, and they will tell you the same thing. Rural crime is out of control. The rural crime rate has surged by a third since 2011, compared to a quarter in urban…
-
Introducing: The Fertiliser
A new annual event dedicated to the regeneration of Labour’s rural roots. Rob Pursey, David Ward The Fertiliser will take place on June 29th in Rolvenden Layne, a small village in the Weald of Kent. It will be a serious event, yet it will also be festive, with talks, discussions, music and supplies of local…
-
The Long Campaign
Part three of John Haywood’s journey In my previous two blogs I described the build-up to the 2019 local elections, when Labour had three town councillors elected in Ringwood, and the start of the period between 2019 and 2023 when we used that platform to build a Labour presence in the New Forest. Labour local…
-
You make your own luck
Part two of John Haywood’s journey Cllr John Haywood In the previous instalment of this blog, I covered the 2015-2019 period of local campaigning in Ringwood. At the 2019 local elections, due to the Tories not having enough candidates to maintain their usual near-stranglehold over Ringwood Town Council, we managed to get three town councillors…
-
Taking the opportunity, of boundary changes and palpable unpopularity!
James Coldwell Chew Valley, the largest and most rural ward in North East Somerset, may not be a Labour stronghold. Yet at this year’s branch AGM members left upbeat and energised, determined to play their part in Labour’s effort to unseat Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. I attended the meeting, as a guest speaker, to lead a…
-
Labour’s offer to communities of the Country
The LCC team Communities of the Country may not have always been seen to be electorally important to Labour, yet without some support from these communities, without some reflection of their needs and concerns, and their futures, Labour will neither win where it could, given so many of these issues are reflections of those we…