Just a short
entry into the Campaign Diary today.
Unfortunately I’ve still not managed to finish off those letters
yet. I am very nearly done now
though. At the time of writing the last
piece I had intended to get some delivered to the streets surrounding my
workplace. Yet again I was a wee bit too
ambitious. I’ll not mention my employer
by name, most of you reading this know me well enough that you know who it is
anyway. What is relevant here is that
last week I was working from 6am to about 2pm in what is effectively a Customer
Service role. So, after getting up at
5am & working an 8 hour shift listening to people’s complaints about one
thing or another I really wasn’t up for a couple more hours pounding the
streets of Leith. After a long shift in this job you need an
hour or 2 of peace before you can start to engage with folk again. But enough of the excuses/explanations. I did manage to get out again on Friday for
an hour & a half or so. A wee
lesson I learned when I was out last time that will save you a bit of time when
delivering targeted letters. Split the
bundle into odds & evens before you go out.
It sounds like a no brainer, but the chances are you will need to do it
yourself. The bundles I took out last
were ordered consecutively. It’s a pain
in the arse trying to sort them out in between doors in the wind corridors that
make up Leith’s streets. That done this
time, I had a nice wee walk up one side of Easter Road & down the
other. I’ll be honest I didn’t chap
every single door this time. The
weather forecast was for the storm to start on Friday afternoon. So I figured best just get them out as quick
as I can. A few folk did come to the
door & I got a similarly good reaction to last week. My wee spiel goes down great with ladies of
a certain age & was greeted with beaming smiles on each occasion.
As I said at
the beginning this will just be a wee entry today. Nothing much of note happened on my run. This letter delivery task is not my favourite
campaigning job by a long shot. It’s
too disjointed takes too long to do small amounts. It’s probably far easier in suburban areas
with bungalows & semi-detached houses.
But this is Leith. It’s all
tenements & door buzzers. I really
enjoy the blanket leaflet runs. It’s
quite satisfying knowing that in a couple of hours of stair climbing you can
get out 2 to 3 hundred leaflets, sometimes more. Also, canvassing door to door or on the
telephone can be a real confidence boost when you realise that 60 to 70 % of a
street is voting our way. It might just
be me, but I get real buzz every single time someone tells me they are voting
SNP. Once you’ve been politically
active for a while & been to an election count you’ll have no doubt that every
single vote counts. Apart from Lib Dem
ones, they really are wasted votes.
Anyway, there’ll be lots of time to talk about leafleting, canvassing
etc over the coming months. Every job in
an election campaign is important. The
polls are looking good. But we can’t
take anything for granted. Remember
folks Edinburgh North & Leith is the ONLY constituency that we didn’t win
last time and arguably it’s the constituency that needs an SNP MSP most. The SNP has achieved it’s greatest successes
since we changed the way we campaign.
The message has been relentlessly positive for a number of years &
it works. So with that in mind I’m
constantly resisting the urge to have cheap digs at Labour & their candidate,
both on the doorsteps & here in the blog.
So to sign off this Campaign Diary post in the spirit of positivity I’ll
guarantee that the last 2 bundles will be finished off by the end of the week. I’m choking for this campaign to hit full
stride, but I suppose we have to get the festive period out the way first.
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