Is this what British politics has come to?

[T_i_B]

Yesterday whilst looking through Twitter I came across a promoted tweet on my twitterfeed offering "negotiated Lib Dem rates on commercial calling"

https://twitter.com/EWA_Group/status/664068528354426885

Firstly, why on earth is this being advertised via promoted tweet, especially when it comes through to people like me who aren't Lib Dem members and don't tweet about them very often.

Secondly, whatever happened to old fashioned grassroots politics? Call me what you will, but if I get cold called on my land line by a political party (or worse still, a marketing agency working on behalf of a political party), I'm pretty much guaranteed to tell them where to shove it. Whereas if a Lib Dem canvasser knocks on my door, I'm far more likely to listen.

No wonder British democracy is in such a mess at present.

[Ironing Man]

1. ...

without wishing to look like the most unobservant entity on the planet, what does that mean?

does it mean 'if you are a LD member/supporter you can get a discounted rate on our services', or does it mean 'the LD's bought a load of canvassing services which they no longer want, and we are flogging them off at a'fire sale' rate' - or what?

i shall now go and confront some chap from the municipal council for pouring Mr MacAdams new fangled invention over perfectly good cobbles...

[Denzil_DC]

2. The only party I've been cold-called by is the Lib Dems.

When our old MP Alan Reid woke up to the fact he was heading for wipe-out in the last general election, one of his campaign staff rang me up.

I'd actually voted for Reid in previous elections, as the Tories were too close in second place for comfort and no other party had been in with a chance.

If they wanted feedback, they got it. I acknowledged he'd been a pretty decent constituency MP and come up squeaky clean in the expenses scandal, but expressed my vehement dissatisfaction at his stance on Trident (he'd become a pro over the years), and especially the coalition, and went on from there to encompass a number of terrible votes on issues of welfare etc.

The caller was a decent sort, and I told him a few times during the 15-20 minutes that I was a lost cause and he'd be better spending time canvassing somebody else, but he kept saying, "No, it's OK, this is really interesting." When we did eventually sign off, I had the disconcerting feeling I'd changed his mind.

Reid then went on to stage a disgracefully negative anti-SNP campaign - when your election literature mentions an opponent ten times as often as your own party or your own achievements, it's not a good look. He got drubbed, and is now trying the same tactics in local newspaper letters pages as he scrabbles for a regional list seat in the Scottish Parliament.

[non sociopath skin]

3. Our local Labour CLP has opted for "cold-calling" ....

.... and keep asking me to participate.

I'll have none of it, I'm afraid.



The Skin

[T_i_B]

4. I last got leafleted by the Lib Dems in 2011

Before the coalition they used to have a good representation on the local council. However, they got destroyed in the local elections in 2011.

At the last election they didn't stand a single candidate for local council elections in my district and their general election candidate was a paper candidate who didn't turn up to hustings meetings. I did get the chance to talk to the Lib Dems East Midlands president who admitted to me that the Lib Dems have died out in the district where I live.

I'm not one to gloat about the destruction of the Lib Dems as we do need a lot of what they can offer, both in terms of much of their ideas and especially in terms of holding the other parties to account (especially at local level).

[Denzil_DC]

5. Prior to this last year,

the Lib Dems here had stood out from the rest by sending out regular mailshots detailing what Reid had been up to etc. True, a lot of this consisted of photos of him at various locations around his widespread constituency (and it has to be said he's not the most photogenic person), but by going negative, he just cemented my own decision (I was unpersuadable in the absence of a cast-iron guarantee there'd be no second coalition with the Tories anyway).

Scotland (indeed, the SNP itself, I reckon) would welcome a functional opposition that came up with ideas that could be incorporated into policy. As it is, it's all SNP bad (even on policies where there'd previously been cross-party concensus), petty point-scoring, and half-assed initiatives that peter out as they're overtaken by reality (despite a compliant media grasping at any way to slam the Scottish Government and cutting the opposition all the slack in the world).

As for local level around here, in Argyll & Bute we have one of the most dysfunctional councils in the UK (not that it's an easy area to administer), dominated, with a few brief lapses, by an "Independent" group (so often a cover for councillors who're too chicken to call themselves Tories) that's a very serious scandal waiting to happen.

[LeftishBrit]

6. I've never yet been cold-called by any political party, I'm glad to say

I have enough trouble with telemarketers without that.

I understand that in America, robocallers with mostly negative sound-bytes about the opposition are a constant annoyance to voters. Perhaps contributing to the low turnout in elections there.

[Ironing Man]

7. ...

i've Only ever been called once, by Labour in about 2005 i think... it was, then, a safe Labour seat, now its SNP...