Matthew Cain's blog

In brief

• Live in Hackney, run an internet reputation business
• Play the Cello
• Support Liverpool, watch a lot of sport
• Labour activist – but given up on party meetings
• Father, husband

Why I’m blogging

Progressive Bristolian

I was born in 1981 in St George, Bristol and have being playing the Cello since I was four years old. I was also (self-appointed) editor and founder of The School Stretch, produced on my dad’s Amstrad PCW 8256 with generous use of the tab key to produce all four divisions league tables every Sunday night. I was ousted in a vicious coup, which started at a rugby club. So  I started playing rugby at St Marys, until the other boys grew.

I was fascinated by politics in the late 1980s – remember my mum (briefly) refusing to pay the poll tax and my dad going out on strike. My Catholic upbringing gave me a very strong (if ill-considered) sense of social justice.

But mostly, from about 1990 onwards, I cared about Liverpool Football Club. I was basically a glory-hunter but felt a stronger affinity for not knowing any other Liverpool fans after about 1991. Such was my confidence in Liverpool that I bet my dad £64 billion that Liverpool would win the treble in 1990. I cleared the debt by winning 20 games of subbuteo during the summer holiday. I later got to the quarter finals of the national championships, thanks to a competition I saw in the Early Times.

Football referee and political activist

We moved away when I was about 11 to Romsey in Hampshire. That’s where I qualified as a football referee and started my political activism. Although not a hotbed of socialist activity, Romsey Labour party included many great people – a former press officer to Harold Wilson, a 94 year old who had met every Labour prime minister and a senior official at the TGWU (and Raymond Plant).

Youngest ever CLP chair

I was very active during the 1997 general election – and sacrificed better GCSE results for a Labour victory in Southampton Test and Itchen. I then became active in my local party and was elected chair of my CLP – the youngest ever and with the oldest ever vice chair.  I was elected to the national policy forum – first as a youth representative and then as a ‘full’ member for the south east. Whilst serving on the NPF I developed the party’s first ‘virtual policy forum’ where members could submit ideas about the draft policy documents. Radical for 1998, I assure you. Our local MP died and we had to fight a by-election. Labour lost its deposit and parts of the party were delighted that in doing so, we’d given the Lib Dems a victory.

I took a gap year to work for John Denham and Alan Whitehead before going to university. After running out of money in my first week, I went to work for Sally Keeble. Whilst there I attended an event at ippr, was inspired and sent my CV to Matthew Taylor, expecting to be able to subscribe to get some pamphlets. Two weeks later I started as an intern working on democratic engagement where I helped write New Democratic Processes.

Expert on political party funding

Then when Thursday morning, after a breakfast seminar for David Triesman on how to reform the Labour party, Matthew asked me to come up with a proposal for a project investigating how to make work  state funding for political parties. I had the best six months of my working life, with the project frequently on the frontpages and editorials about my research in every national newspaper.

When at ippr, I used to wear my Liverpool shirt every time something bad happened. In the spring of 2002 I swore blind that Liverpool would go on to win every subsequent game. Matthew Taylor peer-pressured me into an accumulator bet to this affect. One day I had built my £1 bet into £65 but needed to renew my travel card. Matthew said that I would be too weak and renew the card, which saw me put £65 on Liverpool to beat Bayer Leverkusen. All was going well until Gerard Houllier substituted Hamann for Smicer. I’ve been getting the bus since.

PR career

In 2003 I was due to take a break from ippr to prepare for my finals. On the last day, Liz Kendall had a call from her former boss Harriet Harman, asking if she knew anyone who could help Jack Dromey with generating some media coverage. It was a much more attractive proposition than sitting my finals. Whilst doing that I met Jeremy Fraser, who ran the public affairs division Four Communications – my next employer.

I went into public affairs a week after graduating having had to go home because I couldn’t afford to eat (I had to dodge the ticket inspector). But ended up doing an interesting range of work for public bodies and a range of private sector clients – the most exciting of which were SAIC who were looking to buy MG Rover, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the formative Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Whilst working at Four Communications, I met my future wife. I also did some work for Nigel Clarke. After speaking to Matthew Taylor in No 10, I offered to help get his right to reply idea off the ground. I ended up setting up and running the company – Newscounter.

An expert in online reputation management

Whilst running Newscounter I created a blog to complain about having a new kitchen fitted. The full story is here and it’s building into a successful business.

Stoke Newington resident, Dad and husband

I still play the Cello, although only for pleasure and I haven’t been to a Labour party meeting since the Romsey by-election. However, my wife is a Labour councillor in Hackney, so when I’m not babysitting our daughter (born 2008), I like campaigning for the local party.

I still haven’t been able to shake my childhood obsession with Liverpool, although I’ve given up on England games. I’ve stopped gambling after losing thousands of pounds in 10 minutes spreadbetting (although I won back a fair amount the next day).

The future

I’m fascinated by the potential and challenges of the internet. I still believe that politics is the most effective way to deliver greater justice and equality in the UK – but am not sure that I wouldn’t rather be Shami Chakrabarti than (say) Liam Byrne.