[194/365] stakeboarding

[cosmolinguist]

Before I was a politics nerd...well, I always was a politics nerd (I ran the polling station for my fifth grade class's mock election in 1992) but when I was only enough of a politics nerd to notice signs in people's yards endorsing particular candidates or parties at election time, I never thought that much about how they got there.

In late 2016 in the by-election in Witney (after brave David Cameron ran away), I found out. Because I helped diffrentcolours who was tasked with driving around this rural Oxfordshire constituency to deliver and put up these stakeboards. Lib Dem ones are orange diamonds and say either the name of the candidate or just "Liberal Democrats" and then "Winning Here!" I had fun doing it and a picture that got taken of me holding the sledgehammer that we were using to get these things into the ground (a bit overkill perhaps, but it was what we had available) became one of my favorite profile pictures on Facebook (I'm using it again now that I'm helping out with another by-election).

Today we did not have a sledgehammer, a mallet designed for tent pegs has proved sufficient. We also had a regular claw hammer (the DIY shop we bought it in this morning only had a particularly teeny variety, which to my delight was labeled a "stubby hammer" on the packaging), a lot of little nails, and even more cable ties. Whereas in Witney we had stakes that were already attached to boards, here they needed to be assembled into such. So I tended to do that and then D got them driven into the ground or we cable-tied them to conventient fence posts or whatever.

We didn't take a lot of pictures last time, except for me and my sledgehammer, but this time the routine often finished with one or the us standing in front of the sign and the other taking a photo. Here's one.

Comments

[toriapoptosis]

I've thought about how these are placed! I was curious if the tenants would get the signs with stake attached already and just put them in place themselves or if someone would just come by with a bunch and knock and ask permission to stake or what. I wish it could be a sledgehammer every time, haha. Nice photo! :)

[cosmolinguist]

The way we do it, at least, is that people are asked at some point if they'd be willing to have one of these garden posters and if they give permission their name and address is put on a list. Then people who actually have the stakes and signs are given the list and go around putting them up (we always try to talk to the people to explain who are and what we're doing to remind them as it might've been days or weeks earlier that they originally agreed).

[silveradept]

Interesting! I wonder if people pay more attention to those signs - try remind me enough of other traffic-type signs that I might give them a second look.

[theandrewhickey]

People don't really pay attention to the signs at all -- and they're placed in such a way that they look more like signs showing the house is for sale than they look like traffic signs.
Their main purpose is that they help parties with what we call "squeeze messaging" -- "X can't win here, only Y and Z are in contention". If someone living in the area wants to get rid of the Tories, but is vacillating between the Lib Dems and Labour, their decision might be based on who they think is more likely to win, and if they think anyone can actually beat the Tories. If they've seen, say, fifty Tory placards in their town of ten thousand people, and none from either of the other parties, they'll think "well, the Tories are obviously going to win, I might as well not bother".
If on the other hand they see fifty Tory placards, forty Lib Dem ones, and ten Labour, they're likely to think "well, the Lib Dems are in with a chance, but only if some of the Labour people vote for them. I'd best vote Lib Dem then."
That message, luckily, doesn't really rely on people actually looking at the signs, as much as it does them just getting a feel for how their area looks.

(Where we are, Labour are known to exploit this by finding landlords who own entire streets and getting them to put stakeboards in every garden, whatever the wishes of their tenants...)

[silveradept]

Ah, that makes sense, especially somewhere where a party that isn't one of the two main juggernauts could capture a seat, rather than having to have most, of not all, of the riding (essentially) vote for them.

[cosmolinguist]

The two main juggernauts rarely face off against each other anyway. Usually, in most places, it's between one of them and the Lib Dems. :)

[silveradept]

Ah, I didn't realize things were that well organized that Labour and the Tories think they have the place divided between themselves.

[miss_s_b]

Nice photo!

[cosmolinguist]

It's not very Focus is it. :) But I like it.

[miss_s_b]

You look so happy :)

[cosmolinguist]

I think if I was facing like that it must've been because I was talking to A Member of the Public (the person whose garden we put this up in).

[barakta]

I love reading about activism of all kinds, including that which I'd find too tiring to do myself.

I also love your teeshirt. I think I may need to get such a thing.

[cosmolinguist]

T-shirt available here. :)