Surprised at the lack of door knocking by candidates

[Fourchairs]

Not one single politician has knocked on our door. I am a little irritated by this. We have a Labour MP and a Labour run council. I think they are taking our constituency for granted. Anyone else surprised by the lack of canvassing? Or maybe they only actually knock on doors when they are being filmed for TV! Maybe they are all scared of our reactions!

I had one person knock. Even their leaflet went in the recycling. I can’t be bothered to listen to their shit. I’m playing ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ with my voting forms. Wherever my pencil lands, that’s it. Too much bitching going on with each other.

I'm in one of those areas (usually a safe Conservative seat but possibly going to change to Labour).

All we've had is one leaflet from the Conservative candidate and that's it.

I understand not knocking if there's not enough volunteers but I'm someone who likes to consider voting on a constituency level as well as national party.

Especially this time round as I'm genuinely undecided. I'm a bit annoyed none of the other parties have even bothered to send a leaflet.

I'm in a marginal seat.

Tories got in last time for the first time in a long time, with a very small number of votes more than labour.
We have a reform candidate too this time, who I suspect will gain some votes

We've been inundated with leaflets and letters, but not a candidate in sight.
I wfh so am in a lot, and if they called when we were out, the road WhatsApp would have mentioned them canvassing.

I've seen nothing about any hustings, or even individual candidates saying 'I will be at this hall on this day if you want to come and meet me / find out what I will do for you'.

I know I want a change Nationally, but the candidates locally are not exactly selling themselves.

I think it is so important everyone votes, but where I live, the candidates are not making it easy for us.

Safe Labour seat here but our MP is bl**dy useless. Common joke around here is that he puts effort into one thing.. evading his constituents!

We've had a leaflet from Labour ( first since last General) 2 from Lib Dems and one from workers party who also sent someone to knock on the door. He talked a lot about Palestine but knew nothing about local area so far as I could tell but he was a nice man.

No doubt we will be still stuck with pointless Labour bloke at the end of it all

Same here. Frankly it’s a relief.

I've put leaflets through doors in the past and got shouted at for that, I think the canvassers are bloody heroes of democracy tbh. Haven't had any, safe Lib Dem seat now as the MP is good (used to be a marginal). I don't expect it in a country of 70 million people when there might be a few thousand* willing to do it.

*no idea

I’ve done a fair bit of door knocking in my time and parties really do aim to knock on everyone’s door. So often people are out or don’t answer their door and you can’t always get back. We would put a leaflet in the door with a contact address or number the resident could ring if they wanted to talk to a candidate or one of their team but people rarely do.

This massive poster has gone up on a billboard in our town.
We've been Tory since 1950. The polls have Labour down to win here.

Doneanddone he just put a leaflet through my door this morning..... first time I've seen him in years 😂😂

I'm in a very safe Labour seat and I've had a labour leaflet and a personally addressed communication from the sitting Labour MP. Nothing from anyone else.

We have been actively canvassing since January. Way before the election was called. But, it is evenings and weekends, as we all have paid jobs to do.

With around 45,000 doors though, and a small group of volunteers, it is impossible to get to everyone.

Which is why I don't understand my local candidates booking a local room, for people to come and find out what they are offering.

We've been lucky enough to have had hustings organised by the local Churches in previous elections which have been incredibly helpful for floating voters, but unfortunately the Churches no longer have the volunteers to organise it.

We've got 8 candidates in my constituency, and I've heard nothing from 5 of them.
Not through the post, not on social media, not in person. Just seems odd.

I've lived in my safe Labour seat for 30 years and never been canvassed. My mate in the Labour Party says they've all gone on day trips to the leafy suburbs to knock on doors in more marginal seats where it's not a forgone conclusion, which is fair enough.

We've been leafleted by Labour, the Lib Dems and the Socialists. The Tories appear to think (rightly) that we'd be a waste of paper.

My mate in the Labour Party says they've all gone on day trips to the leafy suburbs to knock on doors in more marginal seats where it's not a forgone conclusion, which is fair enough.

Which is why I can't understand why they are not trying to win votes in my constituency, which I don't think anyone will 'call' until all votes are counted.

Probably scared they they are going to knock on the door of someone still paying off a lockdown fine.

There are 30-40,000households in each constituency either circa 70.000 electors.

Candidates will only ever be able to knock on a tiny fraction of those doors.

Your expectations are unrealistic

Same here. Tumbleweed.

My MP is a Tory but has a very low profile in our area, she is rarely seen and takes little interest in local issues. When I moved here in 2011 we had a Lib Dem MP, a local man whose children went to the local high school and he was often out and about in the village but he lost his seat at the next election.

Last time the split was 44% Tory and 42% Lib Dem. I think Labour have given up!

So far, no one has knocked on my door but I’ve had leaflets from all three main parties. I’d quite like a conversation with a Tory canvasser as I have a few choice questions to ask them! I’m surprised though not to see the Lib Dem’s making a lot of noise as I think they could get a lot of votes from previous Tory voters and actually win. The candidate is another local man with a family living here and has been active at local events for a couple of years. But he’s gone quiet now - unless he’s been busy elsewhere and not got to my estate yet.

The tories know they’re toast, irrespective of what tetchy Sunk and his cohorts gas on about on the telly.

Labour also know this and don’t feel particularly compelled to run the gauntlet of stray microphones (“that bigoted woman” etc.) and other traps set by ambitious hacks and journos whose biggest talent is cottoning onto “the game” in which they and their colleagues share as much of the blame as the politicians for ruining the country.

As for the other parties, they’re aware that their support comes from people with pre-held positions who wouldn’t be open to doorstep gaslighting anyway. Unless it’s Farage, of course, who never seems short of a stream of verbal diarrhoea for anyone who’ll listen…and it’s a well-known fact plenty are stupid enough to…

Us country folk never see anyone. Ever. One Conservative leaflet. I don’t expect there’s going to be a change here but there has been a boundary change. That has probably strengthened the Con majority! MP lives in constituency but supported Liz Truss - poor judgement. I’ve no idea where I’d have to live for door-knocking! We did have a hustings meeting though. In the church as the nearest town.

I'm in a historically safe tory seat but I think it's looking possible that the Lib Dems might win here this time.

Not had any door knockers, had one tory leaflet and a couple of Lib Dem ones. Absolutely nothing from Labour.

I think Labour will target winnable seats. Safe Tory ones won’t get much attention. Labour used to lose their deposit here - well nearly!

Im also bemused at the lack of posters. I have seen some Lib Dem ones in the adjacent constituency (they hold it) but here it’s as dead as a dodo. My neighbour was UKIP so she had posters up previously but I’ve seen no Reform posters at all. It’s very low key!

Our local incumbent on FB stated recently that any insults, the individual posts will be deleted and you will be blocked from their account.

Meetings may have been done away with for security reasons. Too many murders

Our area has always been conservative, but due to boundary changes, it looks like labour have a chance of winning here. So you’d expect some door knocking, but we’ve had nothing at all, not even a leaflet!

I’ve also noticed very few signs around. Wondering if people are just so worn down with the polarisation of politics, that they are reticent to advertise whom they support…

Because they would have to advertise that room. How would you let everyone know you were there? And when? If you have to run a publicity campaign, you do it about your policies, not saying to people to go out of their way to find out by coming to a meeting. So many people are completely disengaged with the political process, they would not bother to go along. It would also require security, because candidates are constantly at risk of attack.

We have been running monthly drop in sessions for residents to hear their concerns and priorities, some months we get no one turning up, most months it is is one or two. That has been despite a year of advertising that we do it.

Most local social media pages are politics free zones and people get deleted and banned, even for trying to engage and ask questions or provide information, let alone directly campaign.

If you want to hear from a candidate, contact the local chair of the party they represent and ask when you can talk to them.