The campaign is definitely accumulating votes fast as we get our message across, and we are all aware that the opportunity cost of talking to voters when weighed against talking to the press, or going to a meeting, or even writing a blog, is seriously weighted in favour of the voters.
Friday night was a good example. My team and I went canvassing in North Newbald – an attractive village with two pubs, the Gnu and the Tiger, next to each other on the edge of a village green. Encounters ranged from ‘Oh, I’ve already voted by postal ballot – for Shan’ to ‘..but we need Menwith Hill to protect us’ (it was the eve of the 4 July demonstration). But the clincher was when I accosted a young couple entwined (yes, we are that keen) and the lad told us he was going to vote for the first time – and it will be Green. He then said, “Go and see my mum at number eight, she’s complaining that no-one’s knocked on the door.” It was virtually dark when we found number eight but the reward was another absorbing discussion – and another vote – possibly one that will spread to others.
I tried to speak to the Conservative candidate at the Cottingham Festival at the weekend. Apparently, I’m now black-listed on account of the event the other day at South Hunsley School. He informed me I had ‘behaved badly’ and one of his retinue told me that their information had been that I ‘had been invited but had declined’ to attend the meeting with the Youth Assembly! Do they really expect us to believe that? I pointed out that we were kept off the site and treated like ‘terrorists’.
‘Well of course … Cameron is the leader of the Opposition’
‘You know who I am … Greens are not terrorists’
The wiles of this Tory campaign are living up to the caricature. They are clearly using every trick in the book, and our main problem is that there are a lot of people in this area who will vote Tory just because they always have, rather than considering the issues. It’s also clear that Davis will not make himself available for a real debate on those issues.
One of the other candidates is organising a hustings and of course Davis can’t attend, probably because he’s doing another TV show elsewhere. But at least all that travelling to the studios is keeping him off the doorstep, where we Greens are busy talking to many new voters, as well as in bus shelters, in the markets, in shops, on buses and trains, in car parks, in pubs, in dramatic thunderstorms, and in blazing sun. It’s a privilege to be able to discuss the big issues with people – and we do seem to be the only Party really listening to people in this election.
Most people seem happy to take a few minutes to have their say. The most striking message from voters is that they are fed up, not only with this by-election (which many feel has been an unnecessary waste of public money) but also with politicians in general. They say there is no difference between the old parties who do not listen to the people themselves. Many express feelings of anxiety and deep disappointment about the state of Britain and several have spoken about wanting to move abroad just to get away from this country.
Other views include an almost universal agreement that our government has taken us wrongly into wars for oil, that ‘defence’ spending is out of control, that they have encouraged the domination of giant corporations, and that the social and natural environment is being decimated as a result. People agree that profit is driving what goes on in Britain (and across the world) rather than values we can be proud of. Nearly everyone agrees that things will only get worse if we continue to be taken down the same path.
So is there any hope? Yes there is. Green Party policies boil down to real local democracy so that we can decide for ourselves how we create the oil-free communities of the future, by discussion at a local level. When people have the chance to hear this idea, they are highly enthusiastic about it. They can see it is a real way forward.
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