Tag Archives: action days

The Action Day – a good thing?

A lot has been said about the value of ‘Action Days’. I have no doubt that for a parliamentary or council by-election it is a vital tool in getting outside help to where it is most needed. I am certain that there is great camaraderie and that it seems more effective to be working in a group and appear to cover a lot of ground.

Is this a tool to be used when council wide elections are happening alongside say a Mayoral election, where lots of people are seeking election or re-election. Is it productive to move people around instead of focussing on your own ward? Do action days add to the number of leaflets delivered or doors knocked?

I want to suggest that they don’t. In my early days as a campaigner and councillor, I found very soon found that me knocking on doors to ask people to vote for me was the most effective tool in the armoury. Taking time to go and knock on other people’s doors or deliver their leaflets reduced the number of doors I could knock on in my own ward. Moving local members around the council area is a bit like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic! 

The alternative to all this busy organisation is to spend the non-election period recruiting deliverers, getting poster sites agreed and running training sessions for members who haven’t canvassed before, so that wards can run largely self-sufficiently during elections.

There is one caveat. There does need to be a mechanism for funnelling volunteers from outside the area to where they are needed and for sorting out where a mayoral candidate is to go during the campaign, but action days add a layer of complexity that may actually detract from getting things done.

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National Action Weekend: 20th-22nd March

The Party has set an ambitious goal of knocking on 100,000 doors across England and Wales over the weekend of the 20th-22nd March and has a dedicated webpage for getting involved.

This is in support of the hundreds of local and regional elections happening in England and Wales in May this year, including Council, Mayoral and Police & Crime Commissioner elections.

These present an excellent opportunity to make huge gains across the country.

The Party is encouraging local parties to get involved by running dedicated events and campaigning sessions.

This coordinated weekend of campaigning will help boost the profile of the Party across the country and build momentum ahead of the elections. It’s also a good chance to get newer members involved in campaigning for the first time.

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Helping you keep your New Year’s resolution

Made a New Year’s resolution? No? No matter. Why not make one now? To campaign early and often in the run-up to May’s elections.

And to help you keep it, we’ve three more Regional Action Days, with more to come.

These events are designed to give you the best possible experience, well-organised, with free food and the chance to campaign with leading campaigners from across the region.

Don’t worry if you don’t have campaigning experience. These days are especially for you, to give you an enjoyable way to pick up new skills.

Can’t make the whole day? Then come for as much of it …

Posted in Op-eds | 1 Comment

Opinion: Will you do your bit for Super Thursday?

Thursday, November 15th, isn’t just the date of the Police Commissioner elections. There’s by-elections in Cardiff, Manchester and Corby and an election for the mayor of Bristol. There’s also by-elections pending in Croydon North and Middlesbrough.

That means a lot of campaigns at the same time. But, look on the bright side, they’re neatly spread right across the county. So, for most of us, there’s one within easy reach.

With so many by-election campaigns running at the same time, the campaign teams could really do with your help. That means help, not in three weeks time, but help at any time, starting now!

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You are invited to Simon Wright’s birthday party – Saturday 15th September

Saturday the fifteenth is Simon Wright’s birthday. To help him celebrate, he’d like nothing better than hordes of Liberal Democrats to join him in Norwich.

We’ll be playing such party classics as: find a deliverer, how many leaflets can you deliver in an hour, and pass the residents survey. If you’re not familiar with these games, training will be available.

As the local party will be providing a free lunch and a free supper, they need to know how many will attend. They also need numbers because they need to know how much to print for the party games.

If you’d like to …

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How to win seats in 2015

Opinion polls this year have shown us between seven and sixteen per cent. That’s a significant fall compared to the twenty-three per cent we received in the 2010 election. One polling website recently stated that, on a universal swing, we would get only two seats.

In 1997, our vote fell by one per cent to only 16.8%, nonetheless, but we made an electoral breakthrough, winning 46 seats.

If polls continue to be difficult, can we again defy first-past-the-post, and retain a sizeable parliamentary party? I think we can.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the strategy we should adopt to increase our poll …

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 12 Comments
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