Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Stories from the doorsteps

The LibDem campaign - costly and glossy thought it is - seems to be hitting the buffers somewhat as panicky canvassers come up against a truth on the doostep; their support is in freefall.

And tonight we were talking to one voter who said that when she said to a LibDem canvasser that she was voting Conservative this year, the canvasser immediately became very rude and aggressive, saying "you absolutely must not vote Tory or Green." The voter, shocked by this suddent turn in attitude, retreated inside.

This isn't the first case of this; we had a resident from Bowthorpe who said that the LibDem "wouldn't take no for an answer" and "seemed intent on having a fight" about their decision to vote Tory.

However the good news is that they aren't always as direct. Another resident tells us that when he challenged the assertion that the Conservatives couldn't win, the canvasser became flustered and retreated quickly. And again, this time on the telephone, when another resident retorted that she wouldn't have her democratic choice limited by the LibDems saying that only 2 parties could win here, then the canvasser hung up on her.

I believe that canvassers are the face of your party - a question for all of us in this election is about courtesy to residents. Maybe we ought to have a "decency promise" on how we deal with people on doorsteps? I wonder if the other candidates would sign?

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