I remember Philip Gould, the late Labour election strategist, discussing with me more than a decade ago the risk of politics becoming like a game of football being played in a slowly emptying stadium.

This general election, in little more than four months’ time, will be the first I have fought without his friendship and constant counsel.

But as a man who understood elections – and the emotions of the electorate – better than anyone I knew, Gould would have recognised how the challenge has changed. The issue today is not apathy, but anger: the crowd may not be leaving the stadium, but they may be turning towards other teams who are playing a new and dangerous game.

This year will see no fewer than seven national elections across European countries. In every one, too many people feel they have been left out of politics and left behind by the economy.

Here, Labour is engaging with the anger felt by so many in the only way a progressive party can. Not making false promises, nor pandering and posturing, but by letting people back into politics and setting out concrete ways we can change lives for the better.

Under Ed Miliband’s leadership, we are changing both our party’s structures and culture. In place of the old command and control, “open source” campaigning involves a real dialogue with people, rebuilding Labour as a party rooted in local communities.

When I first ran a general election campaign in 2001, my main focus was the election air war of posters and press conferences. The job description has changed. The air war still has its place, but it is on the ground where this election will be won or lost.

Anyone who, like me, spent last summer in church halls and village halls, on high streets and doorsteps across Scotland will understand this demand for dialogue.

So for Labour, this year’s contest will be a national election, fought locally. That’s why we’ve placed more than 100 community organisers in key seats across the country, more than Labour has had in any election before.

The Tories may be able to outspend us by as much as three to one, but on the ground in the key seats, we aim to outnumber their diminished and demoralised activists by the same margin as we fight this election conversation by conversation, doorstep by doorstep, community by community.

Our task will not be easy, not least because there are unprecedented levels of mistrust in politicians and politics itself. So the case we present on doorsteps will be concrete, clear and credible. We have already published two of our election pledges on building a strong economic foundation by balancing the books and controlling immigration in a fair way.

Over the coming weeks you will see more, including on issues such as the NHS, our public services and the future of our young people.

Our election campaign begins next week. And, while the colours of our political opponents might vary across the nations of Britain, the choice for voters in May is common.

People can choose a failed plan in which the recovery works for only a few and a country where spending on public services is dragged back to the 1930s when we didn’t have the NHS.

Or they can choose a better plan for Britain, one that rejects the notions that we cannot afford decent public services when money is tight or low pay is the only way that we can compete in the world.