Solidarity Telecanvassing Little Ilford & Marked Register Training in St John's

A busy day on Saturday. I joined a virtual (using Labour Party dialogue software) telecanvassing session in Little Ilford in the morning from home (now up to 1299 calls for this year). 

Ironically I had to deal with a problem that my broad band provider was blocking "dialogue" from connecting  to me so I had to register the number on my telephone number "safe list". I  imagine this may explain why some members cannot use this telecanvass service.

In the afternoon I joined colleagues for a training event in a hired room in St John's Church Stratford, on entering election data from the "marked register" (a photocopy sheet which shows if a ballot paper was issued to a resident at a polling station during a recent election). 

This information has to be uploaded manually, which is a pain but it is really important to know who actually votes in elections. This information obviously does not disclose how they voted and is open to all political parties (who have to pay for this data). 

I am hoping that this training will be made available to Labour Party activists across Newham. 

"On the knocker" in Canning Town South

It was a lovely day for the time of year to go canvassing for Labour. We split into two teams. My team leafleted some modern apartment blocks overlooking the old docks (we could not get in to door knock). 

Then by contrast we walked through the Excel Centre and across the Docklands Light Railway to door knock in the more traditional Canning Town. On route we met a "visitor" (Pink Princess) to the Gaming Exhibition being held in the Excel Centre this weekend. Anyone know which character she was representing? I did ask and think she said "GK" game but have no idea what this is? 

Probably because it was a warm and a Saturday, residents were on the whole, pleased to see us and happy to chat. Local Councillor, Belgica Guaña, picked up a fair bit of case work. 

The response was overwhelmingly pro Labour (we had 55 contacts on "Labour Doorstep"). 

I had a number of interesting conversation with residents but with one in particular (who had been previously identified as being "Against" Labour but said he usually voted for us) who explained that he had felt forced to exercise his right to buy his former Council home, because he was worried that his grown up children would be evicted from his home upon his death, since they would have no right to succeed to his council tenancy. 

I did explain that this was not necessary so but said I did understand his concerns. I think perhaps we ought to think about explaining to Council tenants about succession and assignment rights, which may mean tenants will not feel forced to buy? He agreed with me that "Right to Buy" is a bad idea if Councils are not fully compensated for its loss and it is one big reason why his children cannot get a Council home of their own. 

Afterwards we had breakfast in a café in Freemasons Road, then made our way to St John's Church in Stratford (me by bike) for training on the Labour Party Campaigning Software called "Contact Creator".  Which I thought went really well and I learnt a lot. The app is far better than the last time I used it. 

Afterwards, a beer or two at the King Eddies. Overall, it was a rather long but perfect Labour movement day.