Liberal Democrats across the country are campaigning hard for a Remain vote, with hundreds of events from Cornwall to the Highlands.

With the polls leaping from squeaky bum territory to something much worse, we have all the motivation we need to work even harder over the next few days. My experience is that it’s not been very difficult to persuade people from undecided to Remain and secure a commitment to vote. We need to speak to many, many people over the next few days. It’s difficult to imagine a greater motivation than avoiding handing our country over to the likes of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, whose racist and mendacious campaign to Leave is deceiving the electorate.  I always thought the Better Together campaign was the worst in the history of democracy. Vote Leave takes that mantle by some margin.

Anyway, there are some very positive reasons why local parties should do more campaigning.

Potential new members

If you find people who are very pro EU, the chances are you will be able to persuade them to join us.

More money

And, of course, if you do that, not only do you have extra people to join in with things, but you earn money through the party’s membership incentive scheme.

If you take part in the Referendum Pledge challenge, you could win up to £3000 for your local party.

 We’re sending every local party 1,500 pledge cards and you can find a riso-able version here.

– Use them on street stalls or on the doorstep to get people to commit to voting Remain and give us an email address.

– The eight local parties that get the most people signed up each week until the referendum will get £1,000 each.

– Even if you don’t make the top eight any week, you can still win. Every local party that gets at least 300 pledges and emails between 3rd June and polling day will split £6,000 between them. So get 300 pledges and emails and you are guaranteed to earn some money for your local party.

Laying strong foundations for the future

It is no coincidence that local parties which campaigned hardest in the Scottish referendum did less badly than others in the General Election. Compare and contrast North East Fife and Edinburgh Western with the Labour seats seats which had vertiginous majorities which were swept away. While Labour didn’t have a chance of a comeback, look how well we did in NE Fife and Edinburgh Western in May, returning Willie Rennie and Alex Cole-Hamilton as constituency MSPs.

Freebies

Think about it, when was the last time the party gave you stuff for free? Somewhere in between the Twelfth of Never and the last time Hell froze over, I guess.

Not only have they sent every party a “campaign in a box” with decent leaflets, posters and stickers in it, but they’ve also come up with the pledge cards.

So, what are you waiting for? Now is not a time to think about rest or sleep when our country’s future is facing a choice between remaining part of an organisation that’s kept the peace in Europe for 70 years and which is such an important part of our economic strength, but while you are working hard, you can be reassured that you are helping your local party too.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings