Hello and welcome to the political party, Davy. This is episode three of a special election

series and features Greg Cook, aka Mystic Greg who was Labour's head of political strategy,

worked for the party 30 years and then the time that I was working there was regarded

as something of an intellectual and polling god and he's someone who really the whole country

should know because this is one of the true experts of British politics but unless you work

to the Labour party or you know people who work the Labour party you follow these things really,

really, really closely this will be the first time you've heard from Greg which is a real treat

for me to be able to bring him to you because he is fantastic and understands politics on a

I hate the phrase granular but that's the sort of level I mean he understands it on a really,

really deep level can extrapolate things in a way that other people can't he's been at the heart of

the Labour party for so long has immense experience advised various leaders and his expertise

has been crucial in the direction of the Labour party particularly in the period when it was

winning so we get the chance on this podcast to feature people that other people

can't get or wouldn't ask or whatever but Greg Cook is on those people that should be on

telly every week explaining how and why things are happening so it's an honour to have him on this show

I began asking Greg about his rather grand title, former title of Labour's head of political strategy

so head of political strategy is a great I mean that's the sort of job type that people dream of

it is yeah and it's giving me you know I always start with a tedious old line that I wasn't actually

in charge of Labour party strategy as far as I was aware the leader of the party at that time

was or I'm not sure that's the case now but yes it was the actual job was about polling and

about and now analysing elections and about being responsible for having some idea what the

electorate thought about things but it was certainly a great title I think I might have invented

...