23 April 2005
Reaching the parts other parties can't reach
There seemed to be about 100 people out here today campaigning and we really pressed all the buttons. Had stalls out in Stratford and East Ham _ only people I saw out were Labour. LibDems are obviously not putting much effort in. Labour don't look very happy or very confident.
I'm not surprised. They didn't seem to get a very good response and a lot of their leaflets were just dropped a few yards away. Recognition of Respect was very high, and lots of people said they were voting for me. There was much more interest. There was a very nice continental market outside Stratford station where I managed to buy some French cheese in between campaigning.
People are really fed up with Blair as usual and are desperate for someone else to vote for. They want to know can we win? Will it make a difference if we do? And what will we do for them? Very few support the war, including even some Labour leafletters, according to my reports.
We are reaching parts of the electorate that we never met last June and we are scoring successes across the different communities.
I talk to a couple of white women who say the same thing: they're not racist (and they have mixed race kids) but they feel that poor whites are treated worse than anyone else. This is an interesting argument and is obviously widespread in some parts. People feel desperate and they see life for their kids getting worse and they feel that the ethnic minorities have a better time.
Statistically that isn't true but it's no good just talking about statistics to people. If your house is overcrowded, your parents are living in poverty, your kids can't get a good education, it doesn't help when you're told that other people are worse off. And when you look at the smaller picture you can always find someone who seems a little bit better off.
Respect has to win some of these people over and that takes argument, but also showing people that there is an alternative and that if we remain divided we will always be weak.
Everyone has had a brilliant day. We had lots of the students out. We really laughed at some of them because they're pretty vague and keep losing the maps. Or maybe I'm just showing my age .
Incidentally, we must be the most internationalist campaign anywhere: today our campaigner included Italians, Iranians, Scots, Irish, Australians, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Egyptians, Tunisians and Iraqis. Hope I haven't forgotten anyone.
I'm not surprised. They didn't seem to get a very good response and a lot of their leaflets were just dropped a few yards away. Recognition of Respect was very high, and lots of people said they were voting for me. There was much more interest. There was a very nice continental market outside Stratford station where I managed to buy some French cheese in between campaigning.
People are really fed up with Blair as usual and are desperate for someone else to vote for. They want to know can we win? Will it make a difference if we do? And what will we do for them? Very few support the war, including even some Labour leafletters, according to my reports.
We are reaching parts of the electorate that we never met last June and we are scoring successes across the different communities.
I talk to a couple of white women who say the same thing: they're not racist (and they have mixed race kids) but they feel that poor whites are treated worse than anyone else. This is an interesting argument and is obviously widespread in some parts. People feel desperate and they see life for their kids getting worse and they feel that the ethnic minorities have a better time.
Statistically that isn't true but it's no good just talking about statistics to people. If your house is overcrowded, your parents are living in poverty, your kids can't get a good education, it doesn't help when you're told that other people are worse off. And when you look at the smaller picture you can always find someone who seems a little bit better off.
Respect has to win some of these people over and that takes argument, but also showing people that there is an alternative and that if we remain divided we will always be weak.
Everyone has had a brilliant day. We had lots of the students out. We really laughed at some of them because they're pretty vague and keep losing the maps. Or maybe I'm just showing my age .
Incidentally, we must be the most internationalist campaign anywhere: today our campaigner included Italians, Iranians, Scots, Irish, Australians, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Egyptians, Tunisians and Iraqis. Hope I haven't forgotten anyone.
