Is it about the gas?

This is a little story that I should have written up more than two years ago, but I never got round to it.  However, as we may be approaching an election in the near future, it may still be of interest.

On election night in June 2017 I was knocking up¹ for the Labour Party in a working class district of Portsmouth. I must have been quite conspicuous as I was wearing my red and yellow Party rosette and carrying a very official-looking clipboard.  I knocked on a door where my canvassing record indicated that the only registered voter had said she would vote Labour.  However, the door was answered by a man who was not on the electoral register and whom I took to be her partner. The conversation then went something like this:

Me: “Good evening, may I please speak to Jane Morris?” (not her real name)

Man (somewhat inarticulate):  “She’s at work”

Me: “Oh. What time will she be home?”

Man: “Don’t know.  What’s it about?”

Me: “It’s about the voting.”

Man:  “What’s that then?”

Me: “Today is voting day in the election, and she said she would vote for the Labour candidate.  Do you think she has already voted?”

Man:  “Don’t know.  What do you want her for?”

Me:  “I just wanted to remind her to vote in the election.  If she gets home before 10 o’clock, could you say I called?  From the Labour Party?”

Man: “Oh, right.”

Me (giving the man a “Reminder to vote” leaflet):  “Would you mind giving her this leaflet?  It explains where to go to vote and who to vote for.  She has got until 10 o’clock to get to the polling station”. 

Man takes leaflet and stares at it uncomprehendingly:  “Is it about the gas?”

At this point I realised that I wasn’t getting through to the man, so I thanked him for his time and withdrew as politely as I could.

While this incident has its funny side it is also salutary in demonstrating the limits and the fragility of our democracy.  Elections are won and lost at the margin by the votes of people whose understanding may be little better than that of the man I spoke to above.  Part of the politician’s art is to be able simultaneously to articulate major policy initiatives that will withstand expert scrutiny and media interrogation while also getting through to people with little or no understanding or interest in politics.

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¹ To avoid any misunderstanding I should perhaps explain that “knocking up” is the term used by election campaigners to mean calling on voters who have promised to support your candidate on polling day and reminding them to vote. If the voter says they have already voted then obviously you must take their word for it and leave them alone (even if you know or suspect different), but if they say they are going up later, or are waiting for their husband to come home, or appear reluctant to tear themselves away from Eastenders, then you can offer a lift to the polling station.  In the distant past you could even offer to babysit, but I don’t think that would be acceptable these days.  

The knock-up is sometimes based on information collected at the polling station about who has or hasn’t already voted. This is often known as the “Reading system” as it was pioneered by Ian Mikardo MP in Reading in 1945.  However, in my experience this system rarely works well as the information is often inaccurate or out of date by the time you arrive at the voter’s doorstep.

Anyway on this occasion I had no information from the polling station, so I was knocking up all Labour “promises” on the basis that if they said they had already voted, nothing was lost, but if they hadn’t, then there was a chance of getting them out to vote. 

©  2019  Robin Paice