Here in Luton we’ve got elections on the 3rd. This is a marginal ward (between the Lib Dems and Labour). I’ve received numerous leaflets from the local councillors (who are Lib Dems) over the past 4 years keeping me up to date, soliciting feedback etc. I’ve heard nothing from Labour since the last election until today when I got a leaflet through the door. Nice and colour and glossy. Expensive (relatively). Except it wasn’t from the local Labour candidates but their leader on the council. And it was simply slagging off the Lib Dems. Inaccurately, too. Not much in the way of positive policy. So fuck right off, you useless bunch of twats. You don’t care about me; why should I care about you? You fail the character test - let alone the policy test - comprehensively.
For completeness, “What about the Tories?” I hear you ask. Well, what about them? I’ve heard nothing these past 4 years. They’ve given up round here. Lest you think I’m going to vote LD, I’ve yet to investigate the Monster Raving Loonies.
Here in Crawley the Conservatives are the only ones to shove a leaflet through my letter box.
So my vote goes to them
Oh and the small fact I’ve been a life-long Tory …
It’s a pity there the encumbant party though.
It would have been nice to give Neu Arbeit a kick in the chuff at the ballot.
I will have to settle for keeping the place blue.
It could be worse. In many of the races in my district, I have a choice between the incumbent and the incumbent, the opposition is too demoralized to put anyone on the ballot. They know they are going to lose, and badly, so why bother. I’d rather vote for the Monster Raving Loonies than the incumbents.
I know the feeling. I’ve always disdained people who vote informal, but it’s tempting to write “ARRR FECK ARF TH’ LOT O’ YE!” when you’ve never ever lived in a remotely marginal seat.
We get the same party apathy round here too. Our LibDem man lost out last time by less than 200 votes and since then, he’s been very actively courting the voters. He produces a regular newsletter detailing campaigns he’s been involved in and sends out surveys/questionnaires to find out what the locals are concerned about.
The labour candidate? Not a whisper. Not a single leaflet, not a visit, nothing.
The tories are pretty much a spent force too, it’s fairly certain that they’ve lost so much support they have no chance of winning at all, they might as well not bother turning up.
Oddly enough, we have two Green Party candidates too. Why two? Do they think they’re going to get such a massive vote they’re going to have to split it between them? Give me a break…it’s only come election time that they crawl out of the woodwork, and even they can’t be bothered stuffing a bit of paper through the letterbox telling us what their election platform is.
I have, as ever, used my favourite selection criteria and have immediately discounted any candidate who doesn’t live in my postcode area. Our ward is a very small one, it only covers one or two postcode areas - neither the NuLab or Tory candidate lives anywhere near our ward. The Greens are in my postcode area but only just, and the LibDem man lives about ten minutes’ walk from Faerie Towers. I’ll leave you to work out where my vote’s gone. Yes, gone. I have a postal vote. So on election day, they can hang around canvassing all they like, it’s way too late for them.
Sorry, wrong name- it should be Quartz. (Sorry TLD!)
Is there an English Labour Party? I thought the OP was referring to the Australian or NZ one, hence the difficulty understanding what the hell they were talking about (no Tories in Australia, AFAIK!)
Just to clarify, despite the otherwise general national spelling of the word, the Australian party uses the US spelling “Labor”, unlike the NZ and UK ones which use “Labour”. And, for the Americans and others, the Australian conservatives are the “Liberal” party, which causes no end of confusion on international message boards.
Now returning you to your thread…
Well I live in a marginal Labour/SNP Scottish parliament seat, and in a marginal SNP/Labour council ward so I’m getting tons of stuff through the door. I’ve avoided answering the door to canvassers so far - it’s quite exciting pretending to not be in. I’m glad I’m away next week to avoid the last minute push.
Aye. I get a ton of leaflets too (sometimes the same one twice). I’ve even looked at them all (except the BNP and UKIP which got insta-binned).
It’s different in Scotland 'cos even those in safe seats (I’m in a fairly safe Labour seat) get another vote on the proportional representation lists which means it really does count for something.
Which is unfortunate as I’ve no bloody idea who to give it to.
Are UKIP still going? I would’ve thought they’d implode pretty quickly.
I’ve had a Labour leaflet through my door, but i’m not voting up here anyway. Interestingly you can actually watch the canvassers miss out all the houses on my street with “student accomodation” signs up. Not sure which party it is. Normally i’d guess it’s the Tories thinking they might not get the student vote, but if anything it’s the Tories who’ve been the most active in the uni. I got myself a nice Boris Johnson poster.
Nope, still going, and apparently has MEPs, although I think there’s been 4 or 5 factions so far (The whole “Judean people’s front/People’s front of Judea/etc” routine seems to be down to a fine art) . Apparently Robert Kilroy-Silk’s splinter group is still running as well.
(Note to self: when tired of tormenting canvassers put up “student housing” sign.)
Yeah, January’s the height of summer and July of winter, the Liberals are conservative, your clocks are about 12 hours off… I’m beginning to believe the bit about the dropbears!
