The Famous Five

We've just ended the warm up period for the canvassing in my corner of the constituency and this week we start the campaign proper. The hardest thing I have found in marshalling some of our activists is 1) to convince canvassers to call at homes with known voters and with people new to the area, and 2) to get them to voter ID people using the script.

The voter ID script (or the "famous five" questions) is a challenge for people who have previously knocked on doors and simply said "you're voting Labour in May" without actually noting down the answer given. I have resorted to a compromise - ask whether they voted Labour at the last general election, whether they vote in local election and whether they'll support our candidate. So five become three.

Now I know I sound like I have a constant downer on some of our more senior activists but I do trust their judgement on reading people on the door. I love the enthusiasm of some of our younger activist who stick to the script, but sometimes the script doesn't flow and it sounds wrong on the doorstep and turns people off.

All this being said - the cornerstone of all this is the person who marshalls the activists, gives them the doors to knock, and takes down the results. We do not have the people all over the constituency to do what I and fellow activists do in my corner of the constituency. This means we have people doing lots of work without taking the results and as such we cannot maximise our turnout. This is one of the biggest problems we face as party and one that we need to tackle before times get really tough.

We've Only Just Got BBC 1 in Colour ...

The Labour Party in the heartlands is a wonderful place to work as a young Labour activist who is trying to make an impact. The Party is full of same people who have essentially run the organisation since the 1970's and employ very much the same method of electioneering. These methods include some ancient Reading pads with voter ID full of Labour promises from when Thatcher was smashing the Unions in the 1980's. Things have moved on and we're still agreeing the minutes from the last meeting.

It almost feels like working with the gruff stereotypes from Life on Mars, but I can't really claim the authentic 70's knowledge given I wasn't born in that decade. But I have found that trying to introduce the idea of a database for collecting voter ID to the Old Guard is almost like asking them to pilot a Space Shuttle.

So I have started this blog to explore some ideas for changing the local party and I invite comment from my colleagues in marginal seats who have to fight like mad from street to street to keep Labour members in power to pass on any tips they have used for either utilising the Old Guard or ... retiring them.

Thanks for looking in and I look forward to some humorous narrative in what are for us all in the Party much harder times.