Labour doorstep app canvass in Olympic E20, Brilliant William Morris quote & young people queuing up for Covid vaccine.

 

On Saturday I joined Labour Party colleagues to take part in a physical canvass of the Stratford E20 area (the site of the former 2012 London Olympic village). For the first time I was asked (or rather pushed) into leading a canvass team using the Labour Party "doorstep app" on my mobile phone. In the past we had paper sheets with details of names and addresses to call at to canvass on behalf of the Labour Party, now it can be done online via your mobile phone. It seemed to work very well and I hope the information we received on voting intentions was uploaded and saved to the national Party database.

I went with my colleague, Cllr Shaban Mohammed and former Councillor, Aleen Alarice.  We got a very good reception from residents who were overwhelmingly pleased that we were knocking on doors and asking them whether there are any local problems or issues they want us to raise.

I was really struck to see the green plaque in the foyer of the block we canvassed with the great William Morris quote “History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.”. 

While cycling home I passed a massive queue of mostly young people, waiting for their Covid jab despite the intermittent downpours that day. I thanked them as I went past.

Campaigning in Plaistow South & Running a Board

This canvass took place two Sundays ago. I "ran the board" for the team which means I gave out names and addresses to canvassers to go and call at then collate any information. I quite enjoy this from time to time since it is mentally challenging to control a team especially in a part of this ward that I have only canvassed once before a few years back.

However, it can get a little repetitive and I miss the face to face contact with people.

This area used to be a BNP stronghold but thankfully is now a strong Labour seat. We had two ward local councillors with us, Neil and Aleen, so they were able to pick up Council case work. There was one house where the owner was unhappy that the Council will not pick up and recycle glass during rubbish collections. So she had left all the bottles she had used in the last few years on her drive. There were "a lot" of bottles. I am not sure what Neil is going to do with that one?

There were a number of really pretty and well kept gardens in the area. A bizarre door entry system for a block of flats where the button to open the communal door (top right) was on the outside not the inside?

On way back I noticed a wonderful example of street art by Prince Regents Lane Post office (bottome right).