After some time relaxing in the sun and showcasing the cricketing  skills of the young and not so young, we had a really interesting afternoon session at the NZLP Summer School looking at how we retain and develop support for Labour. Margaret Hayward, a Labour stalwart and former private secretary to Norman Kirk kicked things off by looking at how Labour had put its values in action over the decades.   Her aside that Kirk not only felt people should  have good health, housing and education but  also “something to look forward to” captured those values.  Clare Curran provided a detailed analysis of a number of voter groupings and the use of social media. We learned her star pupil is Trevor Mallard who has clocked up more than 2400 friends in just a few weeks on Facebook!  Jordan Carter finished the panel contributions by highlighting the importance of continuing Labour’s ability to build coalitions of support among traditional and new constituencies.  As we expect from Jordan he provided some provocative ideas of policies to do just that.

Great session,  lively discussion, lots of ideas and a few good laughs.