Make a list of what to say to the Labour canvasser about EHRC etc

[RogueFemale]

I say this because I missed an opportunity to say what I thought about Labour, when a canvasser visited recently, i.e. the failure to approve the EHRC guidance following on from the For Women Scotland judgment. I was distracted, not expecting a canvasser, kicked myself afterwards.

I now have a written list by the front door of what I want to say.

(I'm also anti-reduction in jury trials, anti-assisted suicide, etc, but that's another story).

Can you share your list? I’ve got how much money would they spend fighting the Supreme Court in a hopeless case and then ignoring the ruling for a year

The SCJ added to the SEND fiasco? 'Get off my property' is starting to sound proportionate.

You should defo plan to kick off at a volunteer- they won’t have an answer for you. You need to lobby MP’s not local cllrs and door knockers. They do not make policy (and probably agree with you).

1. GAAAARRGGHHHHHHHHH

I think you need to distinguish between national and local issues. Locally they can't do anything about the EHRC but ask about schools, flags, public toilets & coloured zebra crossings and other such things that are under their influence.

I mean thats my list for the SNP but it probably works for Labour and Libdems, too. Not done one for Reform yet. Tories I think I will burst into tears. Greens I have a vial of holy water by the door and plenty of garlic plus some iron stakes and silver crucifixes just to cover all bases.

Actually for some of these parties you probably want to amswer the door dressed as a grey rock, considering the behaviour of some factions. (Greens making notes of anyone who didnt support whatever batshit 'anti zionism' wheeze they thought up last).

Does the government control the colour of zebra crossings? One was coloured near us. Totally dreadful - confusion for everyone. That will be my main lobbying issue now.

I hear Humza Yousaf complained about 50% of the stripes on zebra crossings.

I haven't had a single canvasser come to my house and I doubt we'll get any. I'm totally ready though should it happen. I saw someone with a massive red rosette not far from my house a few days ago but she never made it down our street.

I get lots of canvassers, and even the occasional candidate, here in Ireland.
In our voting system, individual votes matter - unlike when I lived in a safe Labour area in England, I never once saw a canvasser, ever!

My policy is to keep it fairly light and friendly - I say I'm puzzled by their policy about gender stuff - I mean, they [the canvasser/candidate] doesn't really believe that men can become women and vice versa? I mean - c'mon! So why are we making laws based on an impossibility? And ones that take specific rights and protection away from people like me, i.e. women? That's your policy? Seriously?

I was surprised at the number of apparatchiks who either didn't realise their party had supported the GRA and self ID, didn't realise it meant that all a man has to do was say he was a woman and legally, he is, or didn't agree with it.

Genderwoo never fully seeped down to the grassroots, I think, and I play on that when asking 'good natured' questions like 'You don't really believe that, do you?'

I have back-up points about 'inclusivity' not meaning including everybody in everything, that's just silly, because otherwise every group would have to include the entire human race, so the group 'women' does not have to include men in the interests of inclusivity.

Maybe genderwoo has seeped down to the grassroots in Scotland more than in Ireland, but I think it's worth probing the commitment of the foot-soldiers to such a problematic ideology in a non-confrontational way.

But that's just me, I know not everyone can or should stay non-confrontational in the face of such damaging nonsense😠

Yes, but it's worth telling local Labour activists what we think about the Government. And that it's why we won't be voting for the Labour councillor.

My Labour MP doesn't reply to emails which are critical of Labour policies. MPs have no legal obligation to reply to constituents.

The rest on my list is local stuff, invariably involving Labour destroying green public spaces, trees, ancient irreplaceable meadows.

Yes, important to have another list to address any Green canvasser. I will print out the news story about them ejecting a party member who objected to fairy pronouns archive.ph/5rloz (they just didn't believe enough). I had a Green Party councillor where I lived until last year, and she was old school (nature lover), but failed to reply to an email I sent her explaining why I couldn't vote Green.

I know that - I just don’t know what influence you think you’ll have or what point you’d make with a local volunteer or Cllr? Feels a bit weird.

@patooties my understanding is that they have debrief things after canvassing sessions so if lots of people comment on an issue it will be noted.

There will be people on here who have canvassing experience. My info is second hand from a friend who is active in local politics.

I think it is important to raise these issues with canvassers. One way that Labour politicians dismissed women's concerns at the last election was by saying "this never comes up on the doorstep".

Keir Starmer is my MP and after the SC ruling I wrote to him and said I would like to register that this is me raising the issue explicitly so that he can never say that again! (Not that it's made any difference as he refuses to engage with our 2 local hospitals who are ignoring the SC ruling or with the Hampstead Ponds, which are just outside his constituency but used by lots of women who live in his constituency or with Camden Council who collect "gender" data in all their consultations.)

One way that Labour politicians dismissed women's concerns at the last election was by saying "this never comes up on the doorstep".

They were just lying.

I don't think it's at all weird to raise national issues, especially relating to the current government. Of course, the actual 'influence' of me, one person, is nothing. But if multiple women raise the issue to canvassers, then the message might land.

Why weird? They must realise that if they knock on doors saying 'can I count on your vote for person x of y party", then the people that don't just tell them to eff off are likely to have questions and to raise issues.

Those are the people the canvassers are there to convince - they aren't going to convince dyed in the wool stalwarts to change their allegiance, ave they probably won't convince non voters to get off their arses.

Of course this gets fed back to the party HQ, why on earth wouldn't it? Its valuable data.

I’ve done a lot of canvassing in my time and while local issues are flagged up to councillors to deal with I’ve never seen any sort of organised debrief on issues raised in general throughout the session

@Abracadabra12 I expect it must vary a lot over the UK.

We have a Labour MP, he replaced the Lib Dem two elections ago. When I first moved here the MP was Conservative, so not really a safe seat for any party.

Just before the last general election my classic question when canvassers came to call was a slightly longer version of “What is a woman?” The Lib Dem replied that this was the sort of thing he, his wife and children discussed a lot at home. He expanded a bit, but didn’t give me his view or his party’s.

The first Labour canvasser didn’t give me much of an answer. When another one came round later I asked again, and he said something to the effect of “Oh, it’s you who asked the question, was it?” He said my question had subsequently been discussed at a meeting. I said, “Good, what was the answer then?” and he replied that they didn’t have one.

You should defo plan to kick off at a volunteer- they won’t have an answer for you.

I can't remember whether it was a local or general election but I was accosted on my way up my own path and I was really stressed at the time.
I was asked if I was voting labour and when I said probably not, was asked why.

So when I gave the briefest of answers, hoping to get in my house, our now MP was then red faced and ranting at me. I would do literally anything to avoid being in that situation again but it told me what I needed to know about our labour candidate.

I do think if they ask why, it's good to have a coherent answer, although the last time I just said go and speak to our MP, he knows why as he received an email saying how unhappy I was about his treatment of me, which included speaking over the woman he was with, on my doorstep.