Campaigning on #LabourDoorstep…with Twitter

The Alex cartoon in today’s Torygraph shows a way of using Twitter on the campaign trail.

And  as a theatre technician, I’ve been a long time follower of the humerous strips of Harry Venning [I’ve even got an original Hamlet one on my wall at home] and it seems he knows a thing or two when it comes to campaigning on the doorstep.

Earlier this month [14 April 2010] , the Guardian published this Clare in the Community strip in which she teaches what to do when someone from a rival party comes knocking on your door.

We in the Exeter Labour Party are all trying to beat the record of our Chair who kept the Tory candidate on his doorstep for 20 minutes! I’ve managed 10 mins on the phone and my wife another 10 at a street stall – but did leave the candidate arguing with a local Tory candidate. Result!

#Cowick #LabourDoorstep in the rain

As someone who talks to voters on the doorstep all year round and in all weathers (the #Cowick team were out yesterday in the drizzly rain), I’m intrigued to hear about all these press and media reports that voters are dismissive of the Labour leadership.

That’s NOT what people are talking about on the doorstep…it’s normally about local issues

Yesterday I heard about the route of the P bus (some wanting it to go via the St Thomas Health Centre, others wanting it to keep to the current route), rubbish being piled up against wooden fences, who’s digging up the pavement next door to her house.

Only one resident mentioned national issues – in that he felt that labour weren’t as radical as he wanted

He called for

• re-nationalisation of the railways (and his thinking about the bus services
• scrapping Trident
• bringing FREE dental treatment into the heart of the NHS

No calls from him for Ed Miliband to go, though