SPIRE: School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy @ Keele University

By Hannah Gascoigne (NKCF Chair 09/10) and Lauren Proctor (NKCF Deputy Chair Political 09/10) 22.06.10


Michael Jordan's comment about basketball is also true of politics. In politics, much as in sport, those who want to win are the ones who make it happen. This is not a piece about the wonders of the Conservative Party's victory, or partial victory depending how you look at it, but a personal account by two Conservative Party student activists who wanted to make it happen in Newcastle – under – Lyme. As students of politics at Keele we think our experience is relevant for other students whatever party they support. Shouting at the TV during the leaders' debates or even blogging about policy on Facebook is not enough to make a difference. You need to get out and campaign.


Sat in the Newcastle Conservative Association parliamentary candidate selection meeting in November 2008, neither of us could have foreseen quite how much impact the election campaign would have on our lives. The idea that an election campaign is only fought in the final few (intensely media focused) months before polling day is completely ridiculous to anyone who has been involved. Our candidate Robert Jenrick began his campaign from day one, nearly eighteen months before the eventual polling day. In the early campaign, the focus was on getting Robert’s face seen and known by the electorate within Newcastle –under – Lyme. This meant leaflets (lots of them!) mostly delivered by hand by members of the Association and Newcastle and Keele Conservative Future (NKCF). Leafleting is not fun work. It involves putting seemingly endless literature through seemingly endless letterboxes in all weathers, often with only the promise of a pint in a warm pub at the end of the day.


As the election moved closer the focus moved on to canvassing, which involves asking the electorate to divulge their voting intentions. At times it can be quite intimidating, especially for the many of us who had never been canvassing before, but in some ways can be quite enjoyable. One elderly lady refused to divulge her voting preference until our canvasser found her cat. After much fruitless searching for the cat, the lady told the canvasser that she had not decided who she was voting for anyway.


With our dissertations handed in on the 5th May we managed a few hours much needed sleep before the 4:30am wake up for the dawn raid on polling day. The dawn raid involved more leafleting and, after a quick breakfast break, more knocking on doors to check that those people who had said they would vote for us had gone out and voted. This process carried on until 9pm when we were granted a short break before reconvening at the count at 11:30.


There, we watched the boxes being opened and after spot surveys it looked like a close result. In fact, we had lost but it was by a narrow margin.: our campaign had reduced Labour's majority from 8,108 to 1,552. Other than winning the seat, this was the best possible result we could have hoped for. At the count that night someone who had been campaigning for another party said to us “I’ve been campaigning for a month, I’m really tired”. I think we were fully justified in telling them that: “that’s nothing, try doing it for eighteen months”.


To those of you who wanted and wished for change at the 2010 election, whatever your party preference, did you get the result you wanted? If not, ask yourself: next time how can I get involved? How can I be more influential in the politics and values I believe in?