Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photo: Éric Spiridigliozzi. Parti Socialiste. Flickr. CC.During the coming Labour Party leadership battle in Britain, there will be a critical need to inspire, promote and oppose. And all with a double audience in mind: the actual Labour Party electorate, but also the wider public. Inspire people with innovative approaches on many key issues, promote specific examples which illuminate the potential of a Labour government, and oppose by repeatedly focusing on the problems that the Conservative government will be facing.
The dominantly antagonistic and right-wing national press will cause all the trouble it can, especially for Jeremy Corbyn but also for Labour as a whole. Even so, large-scale public meetings will get local print and broadcast media coverage, with these outlets much more sensitive to viewer and reader opinion. Remember that many provincial dailies have readerships in their circulation areas that are close to the combined local readership of the nationals. Moreover, social media lend themselves to useful coverage.
In doing this, one way to have a real effect is to change the nature of the whole debate. This still means speaking to and for the alienated and the marginalised. But it also means bringing in major new elements, some domestic but other clearly international, the latter focusing on Britain’s potential role in a post-Brexit world.
