The weather was perfect for an afternoon of canvassing. I joined five other party members on the doorstep after a quick briefing at the North West HQ.
So far, there has been very little activity from other political parties. The Morecambe Bay Independents, who hold the seat, had only put out a black and white risograph leaflet, not the quality you would expect from a political party trying to defend a seat.
The Conservatives put out a leaflet that was sketchy on details and real promises for the area, a typical standard leaflet from there HQ no doubt.
I hadn’t seen anything from the Lib Dems, but I’m sure they will do something before polling day.
Labour had put out a leaflet prior to the nomination deadline, but since they failed to get there nomination papers sorted out on time. Nothing.
We had put out a full colour A4 poster leaflet, which will be followed up with a second full colour A4 Leaflet.
The lack of activity by the others parties meant that we were the first and so far, only party canvassing. Response on the door step was quite good, you could tell it was a safe Labour ward though, but once you explained that Labour were not standing, and talked about the problems in the local area, most voters said they would consider voting for UKIP, with a fair proportion saying they will be voting UKIP.
Working my way around the ward, I saw several UKIP posters, which suggests that we will do well come polling day on the 7th October.
Depending on how well the second leaflet goes down, we could very well end up taking the seat.
Previous results in the Harbour ward:
2003 result Lab 585/558/526 MBI 445/404 Con 267 Green 94
2007 result MBI 605/463/429 Lab 531/492/472 Con 296/252/230 Green 89
