To win the leadership of the Labour Party, any contender will need to inspire the party membership and actually reach beyond the party members. This will be done by speaking, travelling around the country, sending out mailshots and by using the Internet to campaign. Although we have not yet seen a true web election in this country (and may never see one!), the Internet as a political communication and engagement tool has come a very, very long way and is now a crucial tool in the belt of any political campaign.

I’ve worked with prime ministers, presidential candidates and local politicians on various types of online campaigns, and I’ve pushed the boundaries in the way the government and Labour communicates with voters and citizens. I’m passionate about this subject, and I hope all leadership contenders take their e-campaign seriously.

Here are a few tips to get started:

- Use open source content management systems. Wordpress & Drupal are two excellent and free software packages, and they both have huge followings and communities of people who can help and who create templates and tools (plugins) to enhance the features of your website. There’s no point being bogged down with proprietary software from a web development firm – it will be harder for your staff to learn and less extendable and interactive.

- Engage non-members using the web. There will be people out there who aren’t party members but will still support a specific candidate. Give them letter and email templates so they can lobby their local Labour MPs and Labour members they know.

- Take design seriously! Seriously! Design has been completely overlooked by the vast majority of the Labour Party when it comes to online campaigns (both nationally and on a local level). We’re in the 21st century and people are used to fancy looking interfaces – look at Amazon, Ocado or an iPod for three good examples. People won’t want to hear where you stand on the policies if their initial split-second reaction (and studies show that first impressions happen within seconds) makes them feel they can’t navigate a path through the words on their screens.

- Appoint a single person of responsibility for your web campaign. This should be someone who has some experience campaigning online, and preferably a little bit of tech knowledge. Trust the person you appoint and give him or her control and freedom over the platforms they use and the content they want to publish. Give them full access to you, the politician, and don’t delegate the role too far down the chain of command.

- Forget about preaching to the choir. Yesterday I suggested that David Miliband’s campaign site wasn’t very good – I now know it’s a temporary holding site. I was instantly mobbed on Twitter by Miliband-fans who put me in my place. They suggested that because David is effective on Twitter and Facebook, he doesn’t need a fancy website. WRONG. The people you need to reach out to probably don’t already follow you on Twitter or are your friend on Facebook. Your online communication strategy must reflect this.

- Keep content fresh and easy to consume. Daily content please, and preferably in video or audio format. Some text is fine, but don’t expect people to wade through long, wordy policy documents (but publish some of those for the think-tankers and journalists…).

And if you want any more advice, you can email me at lukebozier (AT) gmail.com !

After 36 hours of getting over the fact that for the first time since I was 12 the Tories are back in power, and coming to terms with the sheer brutality of the British constitution, I’m ready to look forward to the next Parliament. We have much to look forward to.

The fact that we have a coalition Government, rather than an outright Tory administration, should be a slight comfort for Labour supporters. At the very least, there will be another voice at the table when decisions are being made that effect millions on low-middle incomes. George Osborne can’t just get his butcher’s knife out and cut brutally, and nor can he put taxes up willy nilly.

I almost feel as if we should give the new Government a chance. The country is in a financial crisis, there’s no doubt about that. The last time Britain was governed by a coalition was 1940-1945, when Winston Churchill formed his government with high profile members of both Labour and the Liberal party (also some independents). This government saw the end of World War II. I’m disappointed that Labour is no longer in government, but the Cameron-Clegg coalition is the least worst option in my opinion.

Now is a time for Labour to take a breather, decide on a new leader and renew itself. After 13 years in high office, there are some rotten apples to shake off. The last few years have been painful times in the Labour Party – we lost our voice and our narrative, we were riddled with short-termism and infighting. Gordon Brown is an amazing man with great qualities, but after 10 years of Blair, people were used to a certain way of communication. A period in opposition, as humble-pie making as it is, should allow us, if we use it properly, to shake off the dust and the rot and get ready for government again.

While we are in opposition, I hope we don’t split along the old party lines. I hope we can enter a post-Blair/Brown world. Whilst I like Peter Mandelson, I hope he doesn’t try to play king-maker. If this will be a true period of renewal, we need a real open debate about who our next leader will be. And once the debate is out of the way, the whole party needs to get behind him, not with a shadowy, all-powerful deputy as Gordon Brown was to Tony Blair.

Then we need to go forward and be a constructive opposition, not criticising for criticism’ sake, but contributing to the pluralist politics that has emerged. We don’t need Punch & Judy politics! Let’s make our first step toward regaining the nation’s trust by being a positive opposition, and show that we too can work with others for the greater national good.

It’s the last quiet moments, the last few hours of this election, when millions of people have delayed dinner time to visit their local schools and other places to cast their votes. One of the world’s oldest democracies is right at this very moment committing the strongest possible act of democracy afforded to them. Marking the X next to the parliamentary candidate you would like elected, or who represents the party you would like to run the country, is a profound yet such a simple act. The politicians and journalists and television presenters are the ones who make the most noise, but this evening swathes of the normal, quiet population will make their voices heard above the cacophony of the political debate and the media circus. In a world where a huge number of people still don’t have the right either to vote or have their vote taken seriously, we must not take this right and responsibility for granted. It’s easy to become jaded with politics and politicians, but if you don’t vote you can’t complain what the politicians do. As imperfect as our system is, if we lived in a dictatorship, we would yearn tonight for the opportunity that a pen and piece of paper gives us: the opportunity to kick a government out of office, or vote one into office – or hopefully, keep one in office.

What comes next will go down in history this century. I’ve never lived through anything like it, but I’m too young anyway. The 1974 hung parliament meant less because there was no 24-hour media, no internet, no televised debates. Politics was far less accessible to normal folk then that it is now. The political maneuvering and theatre which will emerge over 24 hours, and in the case of a hung Parliament, will be fascinating. Political fortune might be made or lost for one or two people. It will hurt to lose, whoever of the two party leaders comes off worse. For one, the end of a lifelong political career, for the other, the loss of a longed for prize which seemed just within grasp not very long ago. Perhaps the result won’t be clear enough to say. But somebody will lose. All we know for certain is that democracy is in action, regardless of the outcome. We have to respect the wishes of the electorate, however difficult that might be for some of us. Everybody will feel the consequences regardless of who is in government – these are crucial times that require real action and thoughtful policies from the people in charge. That’s why everybody should take the responsibility to vote seriously.

Bumpy days ahead…