Political engagement

[cosmolinguist]

Tonight's knock on the door was a Labour canvasser who asked if I was planning to vote; I said I'd just done my postal vote this afternoon, and "I'm afraid I voted Green," I tried to let him down gently.

He still tried to show me the latest "only Labour can beat Reform" chart which baffled me: from my own time canvassing I can only expect that in such circumstances they have a box to tick for "voted for someone else" and you move on! Arguing with people who've already voted is a waste of time.

I hadn't been going to get in to this but since he wasn't going away I told him that I'm a disabled immigrant and Labour are making life more difficult for all of those so I couldn't vote for them. He said "well Angeliki settled here from Europe..."

It just felt so point-missing. I don't really care about the demographics of a candidate too much. I care how they'll vote, I care about their party's policies and how they'll affect all immigrants! (Or any other group on the wrong side of this power imbalance.)

I appreciate there's a lot of new volunteers on all sides in this by-election. (Seriously dude, I hope they trained you enough that you know there should be a box for you to tick that says I can be done wasting your and all your colleagues' time!) But it's hard not to feel like this is what Labour has been for all twenty of the years I lived here: focus on this exceptional individual, not the boring systemic problems that the party will always shy away from.

The funniest thing was, as I was finally getting this guy to go away, I'd spotted another guy behind him and I'd assumed he was a fellow canvasser with this guy, but as I started to close the door, he caught my attention to say "I'm from the Greens, did you want to put up a sign?" And only then I remembered that D had in fact asked for one the other day, so me and this guy and D eventually ended up out in the rain trying to find something to affix it to before ending up dragging a big tree in a big pot to the edge of the driveway for maximum visibility.

I hope that sends the Labour canvassers a message, for the couple more days until this election finally happens.

Comments

[otter]

I haven't used the term "dense" for a long time, but it seems appropriate here.

[redbird]

Ideally they'd have a box for "already voted" and then to indicate whether the person voted for their candidate, for someone else, or wouldn't say.

[silveradept]

Someone seems to be very trapped in their script, rather than realizing they don't have a chance of convincing you to change your mind.

With arguments like the ones presented, I can't imagine they're changing anyone else's minds, either.

[cmcmck]

I was a labour party member for many years but now they can whislte for my vote considering what they think of people like me!

[cosmolinguist]

I don't think I've ever even voted for them considering what they think of people like me lol (trans, disabled, immigrant... they've been shit about all these things for as long as I've been here if not longer -- kneecapping the Gender Recognition Act in the first place as well as watering down so many other LGBT+ laws from the early 2000s meant that at least I never expected any better of them. I feel bad for my many friends who did.

[arlie]

What do they currently stand for, other than "elect ME"?

I'm not in the UK, so this is an honest question, given the quality - or rather lack of it - of explanations in news sources talking about "foreign" places.

I'm aware of Labour's origins, but almost nothing about let's say the past 20 years. (More like the past 40, realistically, but it's the more recent half of that that interests me.)