John Harris

I read John Harris' book, "So Now Who Do We Vote For?" when it came out, and I found it very useful. In the constituency I was helping in, there were thousands of people who were thinking exactly the same sorts of things as him, and despite the best efforts of the national party to ensure that absolutely none of them voted for us last time, we were able to persuade just enough to stick with us to return a Labour MP.

It's good that he is rejoining and writing a 'dog whistle' article in the Guardian aimed at the people who didn't vote Labour in 2005 but who are now wavering, to encourage them to support us and join up.

Many of the same people who didn't want to readmit Ken Livingstone to the Labour Party (because, obviously, following the procedures of the Rule Book is more important than, say, having a Labour Mayor of London rather than Steve Norris) are now suggesting that Harris should somehow be denied membership.

At the next election, we will need to get the people who supported Labour while we were in opposition, but who have been getting disillusioned since 1994 or 1997, to vote for us rather than voting for the equivalent of Ralph Nader, or we will lose just like Al Gore did. This is a small but welcome step towards achieving this goal.