#votecorbyn — Public Fediverse posts

[2/2] Jeremy Corbyn had chosen a nearby curry house to base himself in and we were warmly invited to join him whenever we were ready. At 20:30 on the dot, the last board marched in like clockwork and we were able to confidently say that all our boards were back. My five days of #VoteCorbyn campaigning were over. I was starting a new job the next day and probably wouldn't get time off for polling day. But that was for tomorrow. Tonight I was going for a curry with Jeremy. A fairy tale ending.

[1/2] By 20:00 on the final #ge2024 Monday we knew exactly which five #VoteCorbyn boards were still out and had promises to return from all but one of the board runners. It had taken 90 minutes but we'd got there. There was one board runner we couldn't get hold of. Someone (me it turns out) had written their number down wrong at 17:00. Our materials were packed away in a car and our driver was waiting in a cafe for us to hand the last things in and shut down for the night.

[3/3] Jeremy Corbyn's 17:00 team returned long before we had a handle on how bad the problem was so we weren't able to stop and celebrate how well their #VoteCorbyn canvassing had gone. "Somebody gave me £40 to buy us all food", whooped Andrea. Apparently it had gone very well. Our book-keeping had gone less well. It turned out some "Get out the Vote" sheets had the same code as the new sheets we'd been sent later in the day. We persevered.

[2/3] It was easy to text the people who had just gone out, but we still had no idea which #VoteCorbyn sheets hadn't come back from the 11:00, 13:00, 15:00 and 17:00 sessions! Issy started interrogating the spreadsheet, Alessia updated my paper trail and I fed in what actual sheets had returned. Slowly we began to figure out where the gaps were and to text people, inventing our own double entry book keeping system as we went. One of us dubbed it "non-verbal synchronicity".

[1/3] The final #VoteCorbyn canvassing session of the final #ge2024 Monday was assembled and sent out like a well oiled machine. Alessia, Issy and myself juggled team assembly, briefing and paperwork between ourselves like we'd been doing it for years. We only made one mistake and it was aligned with the same mistake I'd been making all day. "We really should have reminded them all to be back by 20:30" opined Issy. "We'd better start texting them now."

[3/3] After twenty minutes of us trying to figure it out, I realised we had a more urgent problem. In 40 minutes the final crowd of #VoteCorbyn volunteers would want to go out canvassing and although I had a plan for reusing returned sheets from earlier, they weren't assembled as boards or in many cases even sorted. Some teams had very proactively split themselves up and so their sheets came back separately. I thought I had maybe five or six boards and did my best to start assembling them.

[2/3] In theory everything had gone perfectly. Everyone got to go #VoteCorbyn canvassing promptly, with the correct briefing and all of the materials. It wasn't until the amazing Issy turned up a few minutes later that I finally began to understand the whole mess I had dug for myself. "Which boards from the earlier sessions are still out?" she asked. "I have no clue," I replied. "I don't have access to the spreadsheet and I don't know if Jonathan had time to collate my paper records."

[1/3] By 17:30 on the final #ge2024 Monday Jonathan was long gone from Newington Green and so were all but one of my boards. We had one small group of stragglers waiting to go out and by chance that was when Jeremy Corbyn himself turned up. I had no idea if the last board was any good, but it didn't really matter - it was all we had. I briefed the last board runner and the team set off looking very pleased with their celebrity #VoteCorbyn status.

[4/4] This cat was "collecting" indepdendent campaigns. As well as the #VoteCorbyn sticker she had a "Leanne Mohammad" tshirt/stickers (Wes Streeting / Newington North) and an Andrew Feinstein (Holborn & St Pancras) sticker. She was planning to complete the London set with a trip to Chingford & Woodford Green for Faiza Shaheen the next day. "Leanne's campaign is the coollest", she assured me (echoing similar sentiments over the last few days). "Watch out for a surprise there on Thursday night!"

[3/4] As we were putting together teams I got to brief the most effortlessly cool #VoteCorbyn board runner of the entire campaign. I didn't have the capacity left for dressing in wit or subtlety myself and was only able to grasp the briefest moment in between briefing her to bluntly ask, "Excuse me! Before you go can I take a photo of your chest?" She humored me and only requested that I kept her head out of it. "I'm still a member of the Labour Party," she said. Photo and explanation to follow.

[2/4] I was so head down that I didn't even grasp the personal implication of someone mentioning Jeremy Corbyn was on his way and would want a good board to do in the local area. Local #VoteCorbyn hero Andrea turned up and waved her bank card at me excitedly. She thought she'd lost it the day before, so I'd covered for her with one of mine. "Anybody want a probably not menthol?" she asked. Ten minutes later I was stubbing out a cigarette I didn't remember smoking.

[1/4] Coming up to the 17:00 rush of Newington Green canvassers on the last #ge2024 Monday I realised that I was going to need to do all the prep by myself and entered full goblin mode. I had five extra sheets but they were missing boards and there were no assembled leaflet packs. Luckily the mighty Alessia turned up and was able to take over briefings. I didn't even have time to acknowledge the warning signs when a #VoteCorbyn group that went out at 11:00 turned up after 5.5 hours canvassing.

[3/3] The mighty James Schneider was supervising #VoteCorbyn board creation at HQ and Jonathan cycled back with filled boards and to pickup the five new ones. Once more I was left holding the fort alone. Unfortunately I didn't have access to the board tracking spreadsheets so as boards came back and our last two boards went out I was recording everything on paper and couldn't crosscheck the overall situation. I didn't realise it yet, but this was soon going to snowball into a problem.

[2/3] Things were getting a little hectic, but it can't have been too bad as I remembered to put more sunscreen on and eat a sandwich. For dessert we had some fantastically moist homemade chocolate cake that I managed to eat a slice of without then making any of the data sheets sticky. I even had time time to take a selfie with Jonathan (the only other organizer left and far too engrossed entering #VoteCorbyn board status into the spreadsheet to notice)

[1/3] The number of #VoteCorbyn volunteers turning up at Newington Green on the final #ge2024 Monday grew throughout the day and at this point we were losing organizers faster than more were turning up! By 15:30 we had sent out the last of our "Get out the Vote" boards and also one of our new boards. We only had two left. I made a (totally unevidenced) call that we needed at least five more boards, if we were to have enough boards for between now and 18:30 (when old boards could go out again).

By the time I returned to Newington Green on the final #ge2024 Monday we had less organizers on hand and my help was needed. We had several dozen experienced #VoteCorbyn volunteers, but they hadn't done the new "Get out the Vote" script yet and I briefed them in groups as they arrived. By the time we'd sent out 7 of 10 ten total boards at 13:30 we were starting to get worried that we'd run out. Hannah cycled back to HQ with our data returns and to get 3 more fresh boards for the next session.

[3/3] I've had lots of Labour Party members canvass with me (always paranoid about being incriminated by a photo). I even met a few people who had signed the notorious Islington North Labour Party mass resignation letter from the previous week. But on that Monday morning session I had an actual parliamentary candidate with me! He was standing for the Green Party somewhere up north and had taken time out from his own race to come down to London and campaign #VoteCorbyn.

[2/3] The number of "soft" pledges (people who change their mind) is one of the best gauges of how well a candidate is doing in an election. In #ge2019 my local race lost two thirds of our Labour pledges (largely anti-Brexit protest voters who preferred Boris to Corbyn). The numbers were much more promising for #ge2024 Islington North. We recorded dozens of reconfirmed #VoteCorbyn pledges and only one or two "antis" who had changed their mind or originally been recorded wrong.

[1/3] The last #ge2024 Monday Newington Green canvassing organizers seemed well set so I actually volunteered to go straight out with a team. I got one of 10 "Get Out The Vote" boards. The campaign had switched tactics to securing 2nd contacts with every #VoteCorbyn pledge to remind voters that they needed ID on Thursday. Consequently the contacts were further apart and occasionally fed up with talking to canvassers (a problem that plagued the campaign).

The last #ge2024 Monday I turned up an hour early to the 11:00 Newington Green #VoteCorbyn canvassing session and relaxed with breakfast at Lizzie’s on the Green. I vividly remember one moment when a woman with a pram standing nearby was discussing politics with a friend. It was the usual Middle Class, "Both sides are as bad as eachother!" spiel, but there was a beautiful moment of nervous laughter/concern triggered by the baby too young to talk mumble singing, "Jeremy! Jeremy!" very quietly.

During England vs Slovakia on the final #ge2024 Sunday a #VoteCorbyn supporter from America who didn't know better suggested that Jeremy only pretended to enjoy football.

Later I was inside queueing to buy a round and watched Jeremy watching the game. He looked like he was genuinely enjoying it to me. But then someone interrupted to ask for an autograph. Ever the gentleman Jeremy obliged, thanked the fan for their support and so missed the crucial equalizing goal.

[2/2] With the #VoteCorbyn campaign office well staffed and no more rallies planned because of some football game England were playing in there wasn't actually anything for me to do. I couldn't bear the thought of hanging around uselessly so I just went to the pub where everyone planned to watch the Football later. By chance, that gave me the chance to finally meet the data analysis team who also had nothing to do until later and were also smart enough to take advantage of it.

[1/2] By the time I got back to the campaign HQ at 15:00 on the final #ge2024 Sunday the only thing going on was #VoteCorbyn cupcakes. I grabbed one and headed up to the office with my data. There the receptionist handed me a napkin and told me that their only job today seemed to be letting people know that their face was covered in food colouring. Naturally Jeremy turned up outside and there was a grand photo opportunity that I actually remembered to take part in for once!

[2/2] I missed the 210 bus back to Finsbury Park by a few seconds and decided to walk instead. Because I had missed the 13:00 #VoteCorbyn rally by so much, I was late enough to encounter canvassing groups all over the place instead. I met six separate groups and waved my leftover morning rally placards at each. I'm ashamed to say that when one group had Alex Nunns in it I shouted, "Oi, Alex! When you gonna finish the book!" He was not best pleased. https://www.waterstones.com/book/sabotage/alex-nunns/9781682192887

[1/2] After two hours waiting at Archway Metro Cafe sheltered from the drizzle but not the damp I was regretting my summer shorts! The #VoteCorbyn boards were taking so long to return that I had called, texted and WhatsApped some people on the list several times. Eventually the last outstanding contact confirmed they could take their board back to HQ instead. I set off to HQ myself with the dozen boards I had so data entry could get started. Hours later I was still getting DMs like the following

[2/2] But then every other organizer has to leave for the big 13:15 #VoteCorbyn rally at HQ in Finsbury Park and I get left in the Archway Metro cafe to await the return of 16 boards by myself. Luckily the boards were setup by Jackie and are very neatly recorded on paper. I know exactly who I'm waiting for and have contact numbers. I sip coffee and watch the drizzle, occasionally chatting with the cafe owner (Corbyn's number 1 fan!)

[1/2] 09:30 Navigator Square Archway on the final #ge2024 Sunday and I was starting to get into a rhythm. It's meet and greet for 120 odd #VoteCorbyn volunteers again. The scripts are the same as Saturday. We've got slightly less organizers so sometimes I'm briefing groups of canvassers but everything goes very smooth. We have everyone ready for canvassing before the rally starts. And everyone out in teams 30 minutes after the rally ends. Only a slight shower dampens our spirits.

[2/2] I didn't get many photos during the campaign because a) I was too busy and b) there were usually professionals doing a better job. One moment only I was around to capture was Sophie being perfectly herself that Saturday night on the way back to the office. Our bus driver wanted us to know he was a proud supporter but was sporting his #VoteCorbyn leaflet the wrong way round and upside down. It's spotting and fixing every little detail like that which adds up to winning an election campaign!

[1/2] By 19:00 on the final #ge2024 Saturday we were done organizing except awaiting the final boards to return. I offered to run data to the office and I really should have been sent. We would be back on #NewingtonGreen 11:00 the next morning and back office would be up until 01:30 getting today's data entered and the new sheets printed. Instead we lounged in the shade eating fish&chips whilst the more industrious began work on the #VoteCorbyn banner that would adorn all our final rallies.

[2/2] This #VoteCorbyn canvassing session included my most memorable contact of the whole campaign. He was marked down as a Tory voter from a previous canvass so we wouldn't even have contacted him. However, while my canvasser was knocking up a neighbour he walked up, gave his name/address and announced that he had changed his mind. He was a Tory employee but had decided that even though he hated his politics, Jeremy was a good constituency MP and deserved to represent Islington North.