Start of the canvassing season
The political campaigning season resumed in my local patch, Hackney, today, with our first canvassing session both since the summer break and of the run-in to the May 2010 council elections (we're believers in making an early start - in this case 20 months before the election).
It certainly didn't feel like Labour is a party on its last legs, as the media believes, despite the fact that we were in a ward that has always been marginal. We had a big, and enthusiastic team of campaigners out, and if anything the returns showed a small movement to us since the last council elections in 2006 (at least that's what the Party's computer system tells me).
A number of my councillor colleagues in the team also took time out from canvassing to make a personal contribution to crime prevention in the area by chasing after a group of bike thieves and retrieving two stolen cycles.
Unfortunately I've got out of shape since the Mayoral elections in May and found that charging round with a clipboard up and down the stairs of about 20 5-storey deck-entry council blocks has left me with a few aches and pains. No pain, no electoral gain though.
posted by Luke Akehurst at 10:36 pm
6 Comments:
There's a canvassing season now? Surely all-year, 12-month canvassing is where it's at? No summer break for the hardcore :p
10:58 pm, September 07, 2008
Quite right Tim, we've been out twice a week most weeks all through the summer, these Metropolitan types have life far too easy...
9:22 am, September 08, 2008
Well done-But you are canvassing for local issues. Nationally the NLP has had it. Decent MPs like J Corbyn and J McDonnell will be elected not because of the NLP, but only because they are decent hard working politicians and have gained trust. When you campaign on Nat issues such as the imperialist illegal wars and the disastrous economy and the privatisations, you will not have a great deal to argue for.
5:07 pm, September 08, 2008
Well, granted if you start a doorstep conversation with "What do you think about the disastrous economy and the imperialist illegal wars" you're probably not going to do very well.
11:14 pm, September 08, 2008
>"Decent MPs like J Corbyn and J McDonnell will be elected not because of the NLP, but only because they are decent hard working politicians and have gained trust."
You jest, they are Labour in name only. Personally I would count the los of these two seats as Labour Gains.
GW
10:26 am, September 09, 2008
John McDonnell may well be re-elected, despite his seat being a Tory marginal in 1997. If he is, it will be because he works very hard as a constituency MP. I'd be surprised if his politics make much difference to the outcome one way or the other (with the possible exception of the Heathrow stuff).
As for wanting McDonnell and Corbyn to lose their seats to Tories, GW, you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. Why do you want MPs who vote with the government 80% of the time and tell people to vote Labour to lose and candidates who would vote with the government 0% of the time and tell people to vote Tory to win?
I know it sounds a radical concept, but can't we just canvass for and with all Labour MPs so we still have a Labour government? Is that really asking too much?
2:42 pm, September 09, 2008
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