Relentless pestering by the LibDems

In yesterday's post I had a go at the LibDems' irritating electioneering methods in Mid Sussex. I mentioned being bombarded by fliers pushed through my front door. Such as these, almost daily:

I was out today. When I came home there was a handwritten envelope awaiting me. Oh, what could this be? I didn't recognise the writing. I wondered if it could have something to do with my birthday in five days' time, although the envelope clearly didn't contain a birthday card. I carefully slit it open.

Uuuuuuuh. Another LibDem plea for my vote on the 4th July:

It seems to be a letter that the LibDem candidate has (very neatly) written in her own fair hand, to make her election pitch nice and personal. Then it has been mass-reproduced for distribution. I like her being a female candidate, and I like the sentiment expressed in the letter. I do understand that it has to be a facsimile, reproduced perhaps thousands of times for a small army of party helpers to push through front doors, mine included. I am impressed that the envelope was legibly handwritten, though not of course by the candidate. 

Were this the only personal approach, I would rather warm to this lady. But as it is, coming after a positive welter of pamphlets and fliers, it feels like yet another unwelcome communication. This time, trying something different to secure my X in the right place on the ballot paper. 

I have a notion that I am one of those who are being targeted for their vote, and that quite possibly a LibDem activist - or even the candidate herself - may press my front door bell sometime in the next three days, no doubt at a thoroughly inconvenient moment. 

And if I delay voting on the 4th July, someone from the LibDems may chase me up, and offer me a lift to the polling station in case old-age infirmity is keeping me away. As the LibDem candidate believes it will be a close-run race in Mid Sussex, this is a real possibility. 

I will therefore be queueing up to vote super-early, when the polling station opens at 7.00am, and hopefully be in and out before the LibDem party agent turns up to ask me who I am, and how I have voted. (I'm not telling) 

How glad I am that I don't use any kind of social media! I have little doubt that mass-messaging and mass-polling have been going on there. But I haven't escaped being phoned. Yesterday I mentioned three phone calls from a central London number that I ignored then finally responded to, only to hear a recorded message, to wit, that they were made on behalf of the LibDems, and that I'd be phoned again shortly. Greatly annoyed, I blocked that number. Would you believe it, they have since tried five times to get through to me - unsuccessfully, of course:

My Samsung phone thinks these are spam calls. Absolutely right. I expect further attempts to contact me, up to and including 4th July. Is it a bot, or a real person, trying to speak to me? I hate to think that some poor person on minimum wages and a gig contract has to spend their time phoning a long, long list of numbers, with a spiel or questionnaire ready if the target victim answers. 

The other parties have not, to their credit, pestered me like this. The Labour candidate has simply sent me three leaflets:

He looks like a reasonable guy. However, the centre leaflet describes him as a 'blur drummer'. What's that? A drummer who drums so fast that his hands and sticks are a blur? Or did he drum for Blur, that Britpop band of the 1990s? Let me consult Wikipedia...aha! He was indeed, and still is, the Blur drummer. Not that this is a recommendation. I'm noise-sensitive.

The Reform Party have sent me only one leaflet:

I can't complain about just one leaflet. Reform seem to be doing well hereabouts. I hear that the men of the village are all going to vote for them - or at least the men of the village who discuss the matter over a few pints down at the pub. I can't take Reform seriously. It's a one-person party (i.e. Nigel Farage) with a few headline policies that appeal to the xenophobic and bigoted. Their 'Let's make Britain Great' slogan is horribly reminiscent of Donald Trump's crowd-rousing 'Let's make America great again!'. National greatness - national pride - is so nineteenth-century. It's 2024, the world is heating up, and combined, united, supranational action is urgent. If countries don't stop vying to be top dog there will soon be nothing 'great' to aspire to.  

Who hasn't sent me any leaflets at all? The Conservative Party. The one that will deservedly be thrashed at this election, though I say that with sadness. But at least they have been decently quiet. 

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