…election campaign in this constituency.
No meetings, no hustings (for the first time for as long as I can remember.) Nobody has knocked on our door. Election leaflets only from Labour and Lib Dems. Is everyone staying at home watching telly?
Everyone probably realises a) this seat hasn’t changed hands in 84 years b) Vicky Foxcroft is an excellent constituency MP (what I think of her leadership is unprintable, but I am definitely voting for her as a person and MP who turns up and fights for local causes). FPTP electoral system = no change likely.
Some of us would rather watch paint dry than attend hustings.
But seriously, I can’t ever remember a time when our local councillors have vanished so completely. Surely they have non party political duties? I know they can’t make party political comments in Council time or using Council email etc. But to disappear so completely from the ward???
Chris Best still attends Sydenham Ward events. Why don’t ours attend FH ones? It would have been nice to see them at the tree switch on. Paul Upex never missed one.
An occasional reply to an email about ward issues would be useful too.
To be fair, I’ve seen quite a lot of hard work from @LeoGibbons and @SophieDavis and both of them have taken the time to communicate to people on this forum and other social media. Councillors are paid precious little for the work they do, and technically they’re not obliged to go beyond their basic duties (attending council meetings, surgeries etc).
That said, I’d only vote for councillors that took an active role in the community.
I was out canvassing with Leo last week. I think sometimes people don’t appreciate that political activity is largely done by volunteers - the delivering of leaflets and knocking on doors. So it depends how much time party members can give and how many you’ve got. And like Irmani above I’m voting for Ellie Reeves not my leader.
There’s nothing in main party manifestos about this, so I assume they are both happy with the electoral system.
I do understand that Councillors (unless they are cabinet members) don’t make a huge amount of money …
And it’s not a role I would wish to take on.
But I do think that having taken on that role, it should be given priority over general election party political canvassing. So I’m not disappointed that I’ve not had Councillors/canvassers knocking on my door or taking part in hustings. But I am disappointed that our FH ward Councillors have sermingly stopped communicating on local Council issues (at least as far as my neck of the woods is concerned - I’m glad to learn from Chris that they are still active in other parts of the ward).
Maybe they are afraid of breaking purdah. But life goes on and we have a long gap now between Assemblies.
I imagine the lack of hustings/canvassing is largely due to apathy since a vote for anyone but Labour is a waste of time and effort.
Unfortunately I’m old enough to remember when Lewisham West was a marginal constituency and our votes actually seemed to matter.
With perfect timing, I just received a party political election communication through the post. It’s addressed to me by name. How does a political party have my name and address? I thought that ticking the “not publicly searchable” type box on the electoral role forms would mean this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. Am I being naive?
I sent a FOI request to the Lib Dems and found out they do a LOT of data mining to work out my political leanings and my personal information.
I’ve never given consent for any of this, but they claim to process that information under “legitimate interests” (GDPR terminology).
At the last local elections every councillor elected for Lewisham was a Labour candidate which regardless of your poltical persuasion is not a healthy situation.
Or complacency?
Ha-ha!
Put a brick with a red rosette on it forward for election in Lewisham, watch it win with a handsome majority!
I couldn’t agree more ChrisR and I made this very point not only to one of our “old Labour”, now retired, Councillors but also Councillor in Manchester which “enjoys” a similar position and they both gave the same reply that there was plenty of opposition within the Labour party!!
Make of that what you will and welcome to The People’s Republic of Lewisham.
I believe political parties have access to the full electoral roll - your details will not appear on the publicly accessible version. This is based on very out of date knowledge though!
RJM is right.
Gosh RJM thanks for that info. I think it’s outrageous.
I looked it up on the Information Commissioner’s website, where I discovered that …
“The full register is published once a year and is updated every month. It is used by electoral registration officers and returning officers across the country for purposes related to elections and referendums. Political parties, MPs and public libraries may also have the full register.”
Public libraries!?! So any volunteer at a library can see it? I’m not suggesting any of our local volunteers would look at the register - and presumably all library staff and volunteers go through a thorough vetting process? - but with libraries being run now by businesses, even gyms in some areas, just how confidential is this information.
And political parties? Presumably that’s all political parties, even some very worryng ones.
Public libraries - it’s generally held in one library per borough, not all and usually a main reference library or the local history library & archives. In some London boroughs you have to go to the Town Hall to see it, depending on what decision they made in 1998, or go to the archives/local history library to look at the historic ones. It’s open to anyone, not just staff/volunteers. The style in which the electoral roll is produced hasn’t changed since the 1890s, anyone looking at it is looking at addresses not for a person (it’s very difficult to find a person on the electoral roll if you don’t know where they live already).
And yes, it’s all political parties - who would you want making the decision as to which ones can and can’t access it? It’s up to you what you do with the fliers when they come through the door.
Quite a list, but probably similar for most parties I would image, and due to the threat of hefty GDPR fines, I think that most public bodies and even private companies might have something similar.
I’m not saying it is right or justified, just that such a compilation sadly may not be atypical in this day and age.
Thanks RJM.
The Information Commissioner’s website also states:
“It is a crime for anyone who has a copy of the full register to pass information from this register onto others if they do not have a lawful reason to see it.”
But if I’m just a nosy neighbour, how does the library stop me from seeing it? I wonder if this law is ever enforced. Just in our area in the past few months we’ve had no action on stolen horse troughs and catalytic converters, nor on a speeding car sideswiping another before zooming away through red traffic lights, even though caught on CCTV, registration number reported immediately and independent witnesses giving statements. I’m sure there are a lot worse local examples that the police don’t have time to deal with. So I’d be very surprised if the law surrounding the use of the electoral roll gets policed. And if it were, I’d rather the police gave their attention to crimes like those I listed.
But I’ve digressed from the OP and I apologise.
As we’ve seen, the parties are more technically savvy than ever at analysing our behaviour and preferences.
Perhaps non-Labour parties ruled out Lewisham as a borough worth campaigning in — on the basis of data analytics.
Being in a Labour-dominated constituency affected my personal decision to leave Lewisham and move to Tunbridge Wells. If other Conservative voters have left the borough, this will only have entrenched Labour further in Lewisham.
It’s a waste of time under first past the post. I’m not sure why they even bother door knocking or waste the money/paper on the leaflets.
Hi,
Mary - I’m sorry to hear you feel this way. I can assure you that we are still carrying on with our ward (and town hall) duties during the election. We are still responding to emails and dealing with casework (I’d be interested to know which emails haven’t been acknowledged - please forward them on to me and I will respond), as well as attending ward events (I was there for the lighting of the tree at FH but unfortunately had to rush back to my house so wasn’t able to make it to Kirkdale). You are right to say that, due to purdah restrictions, I (and fellow councillors) haven’t been able to publicise much of the work that we’ve been doing. But we’ll be happy to do so once the election is over. It is true that, as this is largely a volunteer role (most of us also have jobs, and families), additional (political) duties can slow slow us down a bit but we most definitely haven’t “disappeared”.
In terms of canvassing, across Lewisham deptford and Lewisham West and Penge, we have had teams out most days speaking to residents, delivering leaflets and holding street stalls. As councillors, we have been taking part in these sessions, and also using the opportunity to hear about people’s concerns (and pick up casework).
Chris - thanks for your comments.
Sophie
Thanks Sophie. I received (and replied to) your email this morning about pavement parking on Kirkdale. Thank you so much for your interest in finding a way to deal with that. It would be really good to meet when time permits.
[Edit just to add that I’ll sort out and forward some of the emails that I didn’t get a response on when I can access my PC. I’ll just do the ones that are still “live” issues And I really appreciate your posting on here. Thanks.]
I was disgusted to receive a leaflet for the brexit party delivered to my house addressed to me by name but my other half never received one.
really bewildering especially as I have a weird surname and I’m the offspring of immigrants
I must say my reaction upon receiving it was the same as if someone had posted dog poo through my letterbox…or maybe more extreme.
Did you receive any other political party leaflets?
That seems like an irrational reaction. Are you endorsing political parties target voters based on their surnames or sex?
Should someone with a surname with Jewish roots be disgusted by a Labour political leaflet being delivered to them?
I’m also disappointed but not surprised that some of the political parties who bang on in the most holier than thou way about the “climate emergency” are amongst those who turn out the glossiest, multi page election leaflets. And have the money to pay the Royal Mail (and our poor over burdened posties) to deliver them.
I had such a booklet from Labour and two (TWO!) from the Lib Dems. I also had a mailing from the Brexit Party. None from the Conservatives or (as far as I know) from the Green Party. I didn’t actually read any of them. And that was just me. I don’t know if my husband received any.
The only thing that might have been in any way useful would have been some sort of list as to which parties were standing. As someone else has already pointed out, you usually don’t know till you see the ballot paper. But I’m sure I could have sought out the info online. But was I bovvered? I was not.
All candidates have a right to a free leaflet drop from the Royal Mail.
It is very easy to find out candidates standing in your area - the BBC and Lewisham will have the info online.
None.
I think in my defence that was why I was so damn upset by it.
As the offspring of people who came to this country with nothing as refugees the whole thing of getting a leaflet delivered to me by name from a party that seems to want the UK to stay very anglo saxon ‘English’ really bothered me, like some kind of sick joke tbh.
Especially as my other half registered at the same address didn’t receive one.
