1970s PRIVATE LIFE
9182 Canvassing and Winning
My time at Hurst Park, especially that when I was a councilor, was the only time when I have ever been directly involved with political activities -- or at least political activities of something like a conventional (party political) kind. Even then, the strength of the residents association, which I represented, was always that it was non-political.
Its other great strength was that we maintained a continuous support for our residents. In particular we regularly, once every couple of months, put out a newsletter telling all residents -- not just our members -- what was happening in the area. I believe this was not just an excellent way of maintaining of contact with the community, but was also responsible for our electoral successes. The political parties, Labour, Conservatives and Liberal, only put out material prior to an election – foolishly assuming they could turn around people's views in a matter of days.
Thus, it was the ongoing campaigns -- including specific local campaigns, about planning decisions in particular -- which made the residents association the powerful political animal it was. We never stopped campaigning. Just as important, we never started politicking. Our campaigns clearly were directed at resolving local problems, not at political gains. Paradoxically, they were that much more powerful for their independent nature.
When it came to elections, however, we actually had to go through some of the political motions. In particular we had to canvass all the local voters. This had nothing to do with changing their views, but was just to do with reassuring them that we considered them important enough to call on. Thus, the key to canvassing was speed. In this context there were three sorts of electors. The first were your own supporters. When you knocked on the door of their houses, they welcomed you into the house. They wanted to give you cups of tea, to talk with you and rave about the good things you had done. These were potentially a disaster, since they could slow down the rate of canvassing by a factor of ten. The answer was to get out of the door immediately, or at least to get out of the door immediately without offending them. They were guaranteed to vote for you, you didn't need to change their minds.
The second, on the other hand, were those totally committed to the opposition. These were much easier to handle, since they wanted to throw you of the door was as fast as you wanted to get out. However, naive canvassers waste an immense amount of time trying to change their minds -- with no success.
The third sort of elector was the borderline one. You might think that this is where we would spend time, but it was just as important to get in and out as fast as with the others. The impression you had to leave them with was that they were 'valued'. There was a little productivity in trying too hard to ensure that their votes -- even though the marginal -- came to you.
In other words, whatever the electorate, the answer was to get in and out as fast as possible, whilst leaving them with the impression that you valued them.
At the election itself the political parties used to position their supporters at each polling station, religiously ticking off the electors as they visited the polling station. They then used this to rush around to the people who hadn't voted -- but they thought would vote for them. We simply didn't have the sophisticated machinery that would allow us to know who would vote for whom. However, we found we still had to position people at the voting polling stations ticking people off the list -- exactly the same as everyone else - so that people did not think we arrogantly assumed that we were going to win without such devices. Our own monitors, however, simply tore up the lists afterwards!
After all this palaver, I well remember the count in my first by-election. I didn't really understand what was going on, and didn't appreciate that I was probably in the lead. You're allowed into the hall where the count is taking place, and after a while it is possible to estimate the size of various piles of votes as they are counted. The others in the residents association, however, did have a good idea and the excitement built. Ultimately, of course, the returning officer announced that I had been elected and then all hell broke loose. I remember being rushed out to the main staircase of the council chambers where the local press took photographs of us. I suppose it was an exciting time. However, I soon got over the excitement and it was never quite the same at later elections. Perhaps I got too cynical, but winning is not everything.
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