13/04/2010

Political football: how MUST changed the landscape to make Westminster listen

With the publication yesterday of Labour’s election manifesto, football fans have before them the first serious attempt by a UK political party to target them as a potential electoral demographic. When first floated a few weeks ago in The Guardian, the initial response – a ridiculous Martin Samuel piece (ridiculous in the literal sense) – was broadly positive about content if suspicious of the motives. The idea that this was all a cynical election stunt was added to by the accusation dogging much of Labour’s manifesto: if these were truly genuine proposals, then why had they waited 13 years to make them? A link to the manifesto is above, but the key pledges surrounding fan ownership are: