On The Campaign Trail With The Lib Dems

Published on: 8 Apr, 2019
Updated on: 10 Apr, 2019

The Guildford Dragon NEWS wanted to see how candidates and party supporters canvassed potential voters for the May 2 council election. We contacted all political groups at Guildford Borough Council and this is the first article of the series.

By Hugh Coakley

You have to ask why anyone would be walking the streets, knocking on doors on a cold, grey Saturday morning in April? It was certainly the question in my mind as I joined Liberal Democrats Fiona White, Julia McShane and James Steel doing just that in Northway in Westborough.

They were out and about, talking, listening and trying to persuade people to vote for them in the council election and they seem determined and very competitive.

Lib Dems campaigning in Westborough. Fiona White, Julia McShane and James Steel about to start

All three have different reasons for braving the cold and possibly chillier receptions instead of staying at in their warm homes with cooked breakfasts and a nice pot of tea.

Fiona White braves closed doors in Northway in the Westborough ward.

Fiona first stood in local elections when she “got cross with things” in her area. She is a Lib Dem county councillor for Guildford West. After representing Westborough for many years, she lost her borough council seat in 2011 to a Conservative and didn’t regain it in 2015 when she stood again.

But that hasn’t deterred her. “I want to make a difference,” she said. “I will pack it in at some time, but not now.”

Julia McShane said she was just angry when she saw: “Guildford Borough Council just doing things to my area and I wanted to challenge them. I grew up in Westborough and I didn’t want our area to be judged.

Julia McShane has been a Lib Dem councillor in Westborough since 2011 and is out campaigning again.

“Being a councillor is emotionally exhausting because I invest so much of me into it. It’s so frustrating not being on the winning side, not being in power.”

James Steel is a student at the University of Surrey and an activist there. He joined the Lib Dems because he said he saw them as a group that was “out to do good together”.

He was thrilled when a supporter in the street wanted to put up a Lib Dem poster in the window. That got the competitive juices flowing in the Lib Dem team and it ended up as a draw with all three winning promises to put up window posters.

A prominent member of the local Labour Party lives in Northway. “That will make him really cross when he sees our posters,” the team said.

James Steel would like to give students more of a hearing on local matters. “Guildford Borough Council has ignored students,” he said.

It is fascinating, but obvious really, that the team use a real-time canvassing app which means they can all see immediately who they have visited and who is a likely supporter. A big change from when that would be done with by pen and paper.

All three enjoyed the canvassing once it got going. “Canvassing can be a bit daunting but then I get into it and enjoy the action,” said James.

Both Fiona and Julia were greeted like old friends by people passing and that, as well as hearing people support them on the doorstep, visibly uplifted them. Not so nice, though, when one resident angrily said she hadn’t seen them since the last election. “You have to have a thick skin to be doing this,” said Julia.

Roads were expected to be an issue raised by the residents but it was Brexit that came up more than once, the Conservatives being blamed for “all that crap”, as one resident said.

An hour of campaigning in the cold was interesting but enough for The Guildford Dragon reporter. Amazingly, the Lib Dem team didn’t seem at all phased with the prospect of many, many more hours to visit all of the other roads in the Westborough ward.

That’s commitment for you.

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