Campaigning to win, campaigning so as to deserve to win

During the leadership contest there was much talk about which candidate and which approach would put Labour in the best position to win come the next election. I am sure there was even more talk within each candidates team about how best to win the contest however the different candidates may have interpreted this.

I remember while reading the various literature that was sent out being very much struck how there was talk of not just winning but deserving to win. This was about far more than just winning in the right way but also winning because that was for the best. This is such a novel idea for many in politics, and many who watch politics played out, that it deserves going over again.

Everyone campaigns to win, it's not just about killing time, and even those who are only in it for the financial rewards know the rewards are bigger when you're in power. Power, we are told, is what it is all about. All the policy, all the ideals, amount to nothing if you don't win.

That was not the message I took from the Leadership contest. It matters that you deserve to win, not in the sense of a consolation if you then don't, but in that you need to fight for the policies, the ideals, and the dialogue that mean you are fighting for what is genuinely the best cause. You need to deserve to win so that when, or sadly if, you do it is something to celebrate for everyone.

Let me take an extreme example to make my point: The National Socialist party in 1930. It may well have been a better thing for them not to have won so much support in the Reichstag election of that year. They ran an effective campaign, they played to the concerns of the people very well, they mobilised their grassroot supporters, and they focused their efforts to make the most of the gains they expected to make. If winning is all that matters then they did a great job in becoming the second largest party in the Reichstag.

I don't think the argument needs drawing out; winning is not in itself everything, deserving to win is an essential component.

So amongst all the talk of how important the manner of winning is, which can quickly descend into just another part of the how-to-win debate, lets not forget the importance of setting out a program of alternative government that truly deserves to win.