London Labour Campaign Training & Canvass

After my Councillor surgery I went to a London Labour campaigning training in Stratford. The Party has a new "script" and revamped "Labour Doorstep" app. The changes make sense and to test its effectiveness, some of us were able to go out to nearby Forest Gate South ward to knock on doors and speak to residents. 

I freely admit to messing up at first and using my normal lines but eventually "got" this new approach and I think obtained some much better data. It is far more time consuming but wait and see since no doubt we will find short cuts. 

Afterwards I went to this excellent local history presentation which I will post about soon. https://www.johnslabourblog.org/2023/01/saving-peoples-forest.html

hat tip 2 of photos to Shantu.  

 

Forest Gate North Labour - "on the knocker" with the doorstep app

 

Tonight both West Ham and Forest Gate North wards were out campaigning. I joined FGN since I had to leave early for a meal with a mate in Leytonstone. 

All the ward Councillors were present. Cllr Rachel Trip was the lead organiser. 

This was one of the most successful sessions I have been on using the Labour Party doorstep app on our smart phones. It was a bit of a fiddle connecting to the Party website but most of us were able to do so and it meant we could canvass and input information really quickly. 

There was no queuing up and waiting for verbal instructions on where to door knock and then wait and queue to give back information on the address you had called at. You also do not have to remember all the names of the people you are meant to contact and you will know their previous voting intention. So you will get a heads up if you are going to call at someone previously identified as "Against". 

Really positive campaign returns for Labour. My next campaign session will be in Stratford on Saturday morning. 

Using the Labour Party doorstep app to stay safe & speak to voters (about squirrels in attics?)

 

On Saturday morning we had a training event for Newham Labour Councillors on campaigning in general and also on the Party doorstep app. Instead of printing out sheets of names and addresses of residents for canvassing teams to knock on doors and speak to voters, this information is down loaded onto a mobile smart phone. The results of these conversations can then also be uploaded automatically (a great advantage since quite often such data collected on sheets is not inputted). 

During the recent East Ham Central by election we used doorstep and while it is not perfect it was much better than the traditional method. While mobile phones batteries can die in the middle of a session so could pens run out of ink. 

There are a number of very informative videos on the Labour Party website at the Webinar Library "Using Campaign Technology Tools". 

After the training we had a "dialogue" telecanvassing session in our target wards. During which I spoke to one life long Labour supporter who is (quite rightly) refusing to support us locally until we sort out the squirrels who are  apparently running riot are in the communal attic above her. I will ask local ward councillors to intervene.