I was delivering leaflets for Beth Miller, the Labour Party Candidate for Corby over the weekend.
And, by the way, I was right that Jeremy Corbyn isn’t on the leaflet, and nor is there an environmental content to it. But I was wrong that I wasn’t going to be inspired by it – having seen the Labour manifesto I definitely had a spring in my step as I walked around the streets of my little home town in east Northants.
I’ve done this a few times now, and every time I deliver leaflets I gain an extra respect for postmen (yes, and postwomen). When I rule the world I will introduce a tax on doors with letter boxes less than 45cm above the ground.
I always wonder which way the people in the houses I am leafletting will vote and I wonder what they will do with the leaflet. Let’s be clear, around 30% of eligible voters don’t vote – which I find incredible. I imagine lots of those leaflets I delivered will not even merit a glance. Still, I’m doing my bit.
Sometimes I have a short chat with people if they are in their gardens when I come round. Under those circumstances I always ask ‘Would you like a leaflet from your Labour candidate?’. A man in his garage smiled rather pityingly, but nicely, and said ‘Oh alright then’. A young couple were outside and the woman looked as though she was going to say ‘No, stuff your leaflet and your Jeremy Corbyn’ but the man more quickly said, with great disinterest, ‘OK’. And then there was the sharp-faced old woman who looked a bit forbidding and scary but then said ‘Yes, please. Anything to keep the bloody Conservatives out. That May woman is worse than Thatcher. We’ve got to keep them out. I hope Labour get in.’. You never know do you?
And I was rewarded with the sight of my first Hobby of the year, flashing over the rooftops, which made me feel as though nature was rewarding me for my efforts.
And another reward was an Animal Aid poster in a window against grouse shooting! I’ve never seen the poster before and yet there it was a few hundred yards from my home on prominent display. And it hadn’t been there when I put a leaflet through that door last summer to encourage signatures for our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting. You see – old-fashioned walking the streets, sticking pieces of paper through people’s doors can, bit by bit, change the world for the better. That’s what I’m counting on anyway.
Absolutely concur with you regarding low-lying letter boxes. I did get a bit of a shock when my leaflet was (I assume) eaten by the monstrous hound on the other side of the front door! It sounds as if you avoided difficult dog encounters.
Kevin – I got a few shocks!
Thought I was 60/40 in favour of Jeremy then saw a headline in a paper stating something about Jeremy and McDonald had blood on their hands as by supporting the IRA the Irish troubles were prolonged so back to 50/50.
Dennis, there are sections of the press that are very keen to peddle such a story about Jeremy Corbyn but the facts may be somewhat different. Corbyn has condemned IRA violence on numerous occasions and the fact that he has also spoken out against what he considers to be atrocities by the British forces, such as Bloody Sunday, does not mean he has ‘blood on his hands’. Corbyn is a pacifist and has long argued for dialogue as a means to end the Irish troubles and, as it turns out, the Good Friday Agreement and the peace that has ensued in Northern Ireland resulted from exactly that – the British government sat down and talked with the terrorists and the armed struggle was abandoned. Whether or not one agrees with Corbyn’s approach to the Irish troubles I think there is very little evidence to suggest that they endured any longer than they otherwise would have done because of any position he took.
See here for a more sympathetic assessment of Corbyn’s ‘support’ for terrorists https://www.opendemocracy.net/luke-davies/re-examining-corbyns-dangerous-friendships.
PS If you form your opinions on the basis of ‘a headline in a paper’ you run the risk of being seriously misled.
I think Dennis’s comment was about the impact of the headlines rather than his opinion of them. As you rightly point out, a large section of the press will cynically use the current security situation to throw even more dead cats at Corbyn. And it will benefit the Conservative party at a time when it looked as if their campaign was unravelling.
Jonathon,thank you it is a interesting article and no doubt there are bound to be headlines about anyone that portion of the press dislike.
I do not have a paper these days and just saw the headline in supermarket as walking past with the trolley.
In an act of appalling cynicism and blatant political propaganda, in the immediate aftermath of the tragic events in Manchester, the Sun published headlines to that effect Dennis. Just when you think the Sun can’t stoop any lower – they find a way.
No-one can bear to be left out, it seems
https://order-order.com/2017/05/23/stroud-labour-manchester-attack-wonderful-timing-for-may/
Rural constituencies here so not usually troubled with leaflets or people canvasing and as ‘sitting’ MPs they don’t seem to bother wasting energy etc.?
System needs drastic reform with 650 + 800 so we need review and reduction? Other than bankers who else got 11% payrise + 25% increase in pension? Yes, I’m sure some deserve it but 1450 plus supporting entourage?
Having spent well over 30 hours canvassing so far at this election, I’m convinced that there is a correlation between the number of figurines and ornaments on window cill and the propensity of the occupier to vote Conservative.
Re leafleting – a combination of a dense, spiky draft excluder and a noisy dog on the other side of the door is the worst combination, imo. Pushing the leaflet through the door necessitates poking your fingers slightly through the letter box which obviously brings with it the risk of being nipped! It’s the postal equivalent of Russian roulette!!
Ernest – interesting theory. I could believe that.
Yes that combination of factors in a letter box is scary!
Thatcher may have been the PM when the Corby steel works was closed but the decision to close was made and signed-off by the previous Labour Govt.