Martha Kearney's week

Version 0 of 1.

By Martha Kearney Presenter, BBC Radio 4's World at One

In 1992 Labour's head of elections Alan Barnard and general secretary Margaret MacDonagh went to California to observe the presidential elections.

The pledge card was a key feature of Labour's 1997 campaign

Now bear with me on this - I promise it's not just ancient political history.

Campaigners for a proposition on healthcare were using a mock credit card to get their message across.

Macdonagh slipped one in her purse.

Years later she produced it at a strategy meeting and the idea for Labour's pledge card in the 1997 election was born.

The idea was that the electorate wouldn't believe Labour if it made too many extravagant promises so the commitments were limited.

The card was also aimed at politicians so they would keep to "message discipline".

'War book'

Those iron days of controlled Labour soundbites are certainly dead and buried.

But as the party develops its 2010 election strategy, it is returning to some of the old tunes.

This week Lord Mandelson and Douglas Alexander presented the "war book" to Cabinet.

They believe that the recovery has to be under way before their message will begin to be heard.

In January the plan is set out their plans for economic recovery versus what they characterise as risk under the Conservatives.

In February the idea is "clear change in public services".

And in March they will be outlining change for the future.

Arguments

But Labour strategists say they understand that it is difficult to frame new policies in fiscally challenging times.

That's why the 2010 pledge card is being launched with policies which will make a "personal offer".

They will come under the 1997 so-called ACE formula: they need to incorporate Aims and Values; be Credible and Electorally Popular.

That's the plan.

But what will Labour's campaign be like in practise?

There has been all the wrangling about titles for those running the campaign.

One insider told me it had been "inelegant and dilatory" not to nail those down earlier.

The arguments which we have seen between Balls and Mandelson, Darling and Brown may well re-emerge during the election.

It is worth remembering that by the end of the 1997 campaign, Mandelson and Brown were barely speaking to each.

You may close your books and go for break.