Alderbury Liberal Democrat Activists

Lobbying Councillors

2005-05-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Today I reccomended to our new councillor for Salisbury East, John English, that we remove the traffic lights from several Salisbury roundabouts. I hope he will consider it!

Sandra Gidley

2005-05-11T03:11:00.000-07:00

I spent the last two days of the election campaign working with the Romsey Lib Dems. They are only about half an hour down the road from me, so I figured that my time was better spent in a Lib Dem seat rather than Salisbury.

It was close, but very, very late on Thursday night Romsey was declared for Mrs Gidley by a majority of only 125. I am still smiling from the victory.

You can read her blog at http://romseyredhead.blogspot.com.

County Council Results

2005-05-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

I had to skip double economics and double history to go to the County Council election count on Friday 6th May. However, it was an extremly enjoyable experience.

I suppose that once you see about ten votes, it gets a little boring. That said, watching the piles rise is pretty exciting. Its even more exciting when you win! We managed to win Wilton & Wylye, one seat in Salisbury East, and both of the seats in Salisbury South. That means we have doubled our showing on the council.

Had our results been replicated across the county, we would be under no overall control. However, the people in Chippenham and Trowbridge have been slacking.

Salisbury is Lost

2005-05-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Our vote share actually decreased. Disaster.

Back on track...In force

2005-04-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

Us, the liberal democrat activists have now got back to Salisbury, and are canvasing everywhere.

It seems now however, that the more news of the election, the more disinterested and bored the residents get. We are finding it easy to find people that are interested in our policies, but we also recognise the rise in the number of people that are disinterested.

I went to Tisbury yesturday, and it seems we are going to get the voters support in force. We found very, very few strong conservative supporters, but we on the other hand found Tisbury golden for our support. A youthfull councilor, and an active local team, thats what we have, thats why we are so succsefull.

We stand a chance this time, and we certainly will give the torys a fright on election day.

County Manifesto

2005-04-07T03:58:00.000-07:00

I have been asked to help with the drafting of the manifesto's for our county council candidates. I have dubbed myself "communications director", which is a post I would one day like to officially fill.

Delay in the action of us...the activists

2005-04-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

I hate easter, its the time when everyone goes on holiday at the same time, and in theis instance, James and I have been on well earned breaks too.

We hope that the election campaign in Salisburry has not collapsed because of our absence, and we still strongly urge everyone to vote liberal democrat.

Sorry for the non-news news, I thought I had better keep the site sum what a little updated until we were stretched to canvass again lol.

Delivering literature in Alderbury

2005-03-21T00:25:00.000-08:00

On Friday, in the afternoon James and I went out delivering small newspapers with our local promises contained. The papers were very difficult to deliver succesfuly, as they were fragile and needed folding, the folding took time. After the labourious process of folding, we delivered, and we delivered half 3/4 a bundle of papers, which is about 400 papers.
James and I calculated that we delivered the literature to the most difficult half of Alderbury, the sparsely populated part. We had gained a great aesthetic feel of success and celebrated after with a hot tub party -wahey. We believe that the papers are delivering the message that the Liberal Democrats are active, strong, and a threat to the Conservatives 'safe' vote. We believe we can win, we just need to let people know we're out there.

location is 9/10 of the law, Alderbury is our vote...

Football!?

2005-03-16T02:17:00.000-08:00

Yes we are...

yep...

definately...

James and i are playing in a 5-a-side football tournament tomarrow wearing yellow shirts-how cool is that?

If James and I aren't crazy, who is?

We will be playing in yellow and gold, wearing our LibDem badges-just to let everyone know that we are proud to be Liberal Democrat, and are unafraid to show it...

Winning the competition would be a bonus to!

Salisbury's new 'tabloid'

2005-03-12T09:31:00.000-08:00

On Friday we went out and began to distribute the new tabloid that the local party has produced. We managed to deliver around 80/hour, which I am told is a reasonable pace.

Canvassing Avon Drive on 08/03/05

2005-03-08T13:22:00.000-08:00

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's off to work we go...

As usual Rich, Charli, James and I set off to convert Tory voters to the righteous path, and of course to find out where people hate us, and support us. We had finished on Friday in Avon Drive, and we knew that the area was a Tory stronghold - 'all sorts of bother' as James would say. We did however have a limited amount of success, especially with Rich, who was on fire today.

We encountered several suprising residents today, one of which was a non-voter, but extremely hot! She came from a very libdem backround which was good, seeing as I stuttered when I first saw her on the doorstep! I couldn't do with a sexy tory, I would have crumbled under the pressure. She smiled at me which was good, made me feel I wasnt the first to be smitten by her good looks. Charli was also doing well today, as we can see here.

She was amazing, in fact she answered her first door with me, and however much the guy was not interested, and on the phone, she still put the message across, next to me, she was a goddess of canvassing. This was her virgin outing, actually talking to people that is!

James, Rich and I all looked like real pro's today, yellow ties, badges, the lot. I think we did the Libdems proud, and we certainly made people on the doorstep think we were more than mere volunteers. This is our team photo before the events.

Rich never stops at anything, we go into the local after our canvassing, and what does he do?

Yep...He does some more canvassing on the bar lady, how dedicated is that? Weird. We're going out again on Friday - this time to Bemerton Heath. Watch out for our obituaries..

Out and about on the campaign Trail

2005-03-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

It has been a long day. I have been to a Liberal Democrat fundraiser in Shrewton, a Conservative "Meet your MP" meeting and a pub in Great Wishford. Somewhere in between we also managed some canvassing, and I bought some great history books!

Let me start at the beginning. Our first stop was a bring and buy sale in Shrewton - one Salisbury's outlying villages. I managed to pick up some books very cheaply, but more importantly Richard showed his face and gave a good speech.

I also met a World War II veteran. Flying Officer Peter Hale flew Spitfires from 1943 to 1945 as a member of 41 squadron RAF. He took part in the Battle of the Bulge, and was kind enough to let me have his picture taken with him.

We then went canvassing. The response was excellent - everyone seemed very interested in our policies. We met one man, however, who said he wasn't voting for anyone, and was so disgusted that he was going to leave the country. You can't win them all I suppose. Below is a more successful canvassing experience.

The next stop on the tour was a chance to eye down our "enemy" - the incumbent MP for Salisbury, Robert Key. During the questions, I asked him why the Conservative council was raising the costs for Park and Ride by 45%. He responded with a ten minute deluge of rubbish. He spent much of the time agreeing with the people who were complaining about the Skew Bridge project. Isn't he supposed to be our MP? Why isn't he taking responsibility for the scandal? Typical Conservative buck passing. He wouldn't have his photo taken with me.

Richard and I then stopped off to have a chat with our Candidate for the Bemerton Heath County Council seat, Tim. He's a great guy. He didn't want to have his photo taken in his overalls, but I insisted.

Our final stop off was at Great Wishford. We only managed to canvass two houses, but it seems like a nice village.

It was a long day, but I had a lot of time to chat to Rich about the election campaign. I also recieved my membership card today! I'm now a card carrying member of the Liberal Democrats. Roll on May 5th!

Friday (04/02/2005)

2005-03-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

We went out again in Alderbury today. Richard volunteered to come with us, and our latest recruit, Charli, also came along. Here is a picture of us just before we went out. From left to right: James(me!), Richard Denton-White (the candidate), Charli and Rob.

We met more Tories and fewer Liberals, which is a bit of a downer. However, we did find two people who wanted to show posters at the election which is pretty exciting. All in all it was a good evening :-). Here is a picture of Rob about to knock on a door. He's turning into a real pro, and he's much more confident than I am.

We were also using the new Iraqi leaflets which I had designed (with some input from Richard). Almost everyone we met was against the war, and I think this might turn into a real vote winner. That is not that we are making a cheap political move - our opposition to the war is based upon our Liberal Principles. That said, many people had initially supported the war, but had subsequently become disillusioned.

I'm hoping to go out again on Tuesday. I will take some more photos. There is also a bring-n-buy that I have been invited to on the Saturday. Hopefully we can raise some more money for the cause!

Introduction

2005-02-26T04:11:00.000-08:00

Good Afternoon, members of the blogosphere. My name is James, I'm 18, and I'm currently an activist with the Salisbury Liberal Democrats. With the election coming in May everything is slowly building in intensity.

We face an 8,000 majority and an incumbent of 22 years. Robert Key is the very model of an old fashioned Tory. Our candidate, Richard Denton-White, is a youthful, outspoken and personable man, and, perhaps what is more, truly believes we can win this election. So do I.

Of course it will be difficult. I'm a one man team when it comes to informing the people of my village - Alderbury, about the Lib Dems and our message. I've managed to enlist two of my friends, Imy Dive and Robert Letherbarrow to help out, and no doubt their names will pop back up again in this story. I will keep you up to date with my latest opinion polling, and hopefully share with you any lessons of door to door politics that I learn along the way.