For two weeks, my housemates and I have spent most/all of our spare time manning the phones, knocking on doors, leafletting, etc.
Today we spent all day trying to canvas Milton Keynes North in unrelenting rain. 7 hours of putting one soggy trainer in front of the other, traversing suburbia in a last ditch attempt to save our society and our consciouses. Labour stickers on waterproof jackets, chilly hands, endless housing estates, damp paper on red clip boards, the clock ever ticking. Some people we visited were cheery and supportive, some were abusive, a few were game for meaningful chats, but many were just disinterested, over it.
Still. Polls looked OK. The gap was closing. And we saw so many Labour volunteers - more than ever. We were cautiously hopeful. We sipped tins of beer on the train back to London and braced ourselves for the exit poll.
We are now stunned and bitterly disappointed.
That's democracy. Your political views and mine are very different but without your canvassing and effort our system wouldn't work. Labour will no doubt win an election in the near future. Blair won three in a row after Labour having years in the tory wilderness.
For two weeks, my housemates and I have spent most/all of our spare time manning the phones, knocking on doors, leafletting, etc.
Today we spent all day trying to canvas Milton Keynes North in unrelenting rain. 7 hours of putting one soggy trainer in front of the other, traversing suburbia in a last ditch attempt to save our society and our consciouses. Labour stickers on waterproof jackets, chilly hands, endless housing estates, damp paper on red clip boards, the clock ever ticking. Some people we visited were cheery and supportive, some were abusive, a few were game for meaningful chats, but many were just disinterested, over it.
Still. Polls looked OK. The gap was closing. And we saw so many Labour volunteers - more than ever. We were cautiously hopeful. We sipped tins of beer on the train back to London and braced ourselves for the exit poll.
We are now stunned and bitterly disappointed.