I’ve received a bunch of pre-election mailshots of late, and I thought the different approaches taken by each party were interesting (and somewhat telling). I was curious as to what others were seeing?

To date I’ve had,

Untargetted:
Two Brexit Party fliers unsurprisingly screaming something something brexit something.
One Conservative mail going “Corbyn = no brexit” (which would be nice) and basically smearing Labour without a whiff of content about themselves.
One Labour flier talking about what a great upstanding member of the community our local MP is. No mention of brexit, Corbyn, or any of the other parties, just solely local issues.

Targetted (ie addressed to me by name):
Yet more Brexit Party propaganda.
A letter titled “NHS not for sale,” written by a “North West NHS surgeon” (I checked, he’s in Yorkshire) pleading to vote Labour in order to save the NHS. In Flyspeck 3 font at the bottom it says it’s “promoted by Liam Didsbury on behalf of Labour North West.” It also comes with a free “vote Labour” poster that I can put in my window, presumably to give the local racists something to aim bricks at.

I’m actually kinda pleased about the Brexit Party ones – if they’re aggressively going after votes here, they’ll likely be taking them from the Tories and I’m in a near 50:50 Labour/Tory constituency so that could actually work against them.

Not a sausage so far from the LDs. I wonder whether they’re intentionally keeping their heads down for the same reason as above?

One UKIP. One LibDem. One Labour.

A slew of full SNP sheets, detailing the candidate’s aspirations. A *lot* – I mean a whole bonfire’s worth – of flimsy Tory stuff, something about Nicola’s candidate and very much no to indyref2. eff all about their policies though.

Oh, and the Tory stuff is very targeted, direct addressed to all 4 voters in our household. Canvassers, less of them.

[ Moray – two way scrap, on balance a tight Con hold IMO ]

Nothing thus far.

The incumbent SNP MP waves and says hello if she sees me walking the dog.

She’s a nice lady.

Edinburgh based. Loads of flyers from SNP, Labout, Tories and LibDems none from UKIP, Brexit or Greens. Individually addressed letters to wife and myself from Labour and SNP. Joint letter to (Mr and Mrs M) from Tories, which really annoys me. It’s as if we are a single voting entity.
From my other thread on this topic, I expect my immediate neighbours have a different spread.

I was pretty neutral on how I was going to vote, and have switched between Labour and Lib Dem at intervals, preferring to look at the candidates themselves rather than any of the party politics or leader smears. The previous Lib Dem MP did a good job for the area and the current Labour incumbent seems to be doing the same. The Tories are a very distant third, or possibly even fourth after the Greens.

We’ve had stuff from a desperate Tory that are all ‘Get Brexit Done’ party lines, which has been roundly ignored. We’ve also had a few bits from the Labour incumbent with what he’s done so far in his tenancy, what he hasn’t managed to do that he said he would and still plans to, and what new things he plans to do if he’s re-elected. Had a read and decided to wait for the Lib Dem to play his hand to see how we go.

In the last couple of weeks, the Lib Dem candidate sent his politispam campaign out and it’s all ‘STOP CORBYN!!’ and ‘Labour will wreck the place!!’. Needless to say, I now won’t be voting for him.

The Greens and thats it.

The Torys seem to be clogging up Youtube with their vile bile, and Labour seemed to have disappeared off the face of this planet.

I’m a member of the LibDems but nothing other than emails form them..

Very low budget effort from Lib Dems. Can’t recall content beyond blurry photos that looked like they were taken by someone unfamiliar with a camera and the ideas of composition and lighting.

Super polished Tory mouthpiece type leaflet, promising, get Brexit Done, Keep Pensions Good with Free Stuff for Old Farts, Stop Destruction of Countryside, Fun Times for Farmers. And, look how long your lovely candidate has lived here, he’s always lived here, never left, loves it so much, here’s a picture of him holding a baby (sheep), he just loves grass and trees, another one standing in a housing estate which there will be no more of because those awful foreigners will have gone home so we won’t need more houses (I think he might have helped it get built IIRC). Blah blah blah Brexit lies horsepoo blah blah.

Squat from Labour.

I’m in a Tory landslide constituency.

In related news,

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/general-election-tory-campaign-leaflet-prescription-nhs-full-fact-a9238226.html

Sigh.

Had a Tory leaflet before the GE was even called, but they love me online – banner ads all over FB and YT, I click them when I see them, burn through their budget for them.

LibDems dropped 2 I think, I’m a bit miffed tbh, we’re a Tory/Labour swing seat where the Libs have never polled more than 5%.

Brexit Party **** love me, personal letters in envelopes, no ta pal.

Plaid knocked before, they keep promising to re-open loads of Rail Lines across Wales, it’s a great scheme, but they’re a bit snide. I don’t want to be independent of the UK per-se (although I’d take a Wales in the EU over a UK out of it) I ask them “how do you propose to do it, it’s far too expensive and out of the remit of WAG to do it, and anyway, this is a national election, plus you only stand in Wales so it’s impossible for you to form a Government – do you intend to be part of a collation, if so, with who? the SNP make sense, but even if you hold all of Wales and the SNP all of Scotland, you’ll need a lot of MPs in England, which parties would you work with” That’s usually when they admit they can only do, most of the things they promise to do, after Wales become independent.

Had a letter from the LibDems claiming that Edinburgh South is a two horse race between the LibDems and the SNP. No mention of the fact that Ian Murray (Lab) won this seat at the last election with a majority of 16k – Libdems a distant 4th behind the conservatives. Slightly odd.

Had one leaflet from Brexit Party, candidate is from 300+ miles away.
Two from the Tories, candidate is basically a black hole, nothing on-line about him at all.
Personal letter to Mrs Matt from Labour, plus a few leaflets.
Nothing at all from Lib Dems and Greens.

Labour safe seat (Sunderland Central), fully expect it to be Labour still but with a vastly reduced majority because a it’s a massively leave area and a lot of people are thick as mince.

Around my way the Tories (current vote share 39.8%) are very much hammering the message that if you vote for Lib Dem (2.7%) or Labour (14.8%) you will get Nicola Sturgeon. Who, to be clear, isn’t actually running in my electorate but I guess she has better recognition than whomever is running for SNP (38.3%).

So in the whole flyer, they only mention Brexit once in a quote from some tube who thinks “get Brexit sorted” is a coherent human thought.

Its not the EU who are the bogies in prosperous rural Scotland, its the SNP.

We’ve had a few but I’m not actually sure what they are without checking the dogs bed, he’s in charge of collecting anything that drops through the door after the postman has been.

I’m sure I saw a half eaten conservative leaflet the otherday though.

I had a Labour leaflet making much of their vote in this constituency doubling since 2010. Aye, but it’s a safe Tory seat and the Labour vote’s gone from f*** all to twice f*** all so they’re being a bit selective about what they’re telling prospective voters – bit slippery if you ask me. Of course, in the context of Johnson’s hospital lies, his get brexit “done” lie and his old bus lies I suppose it’s pretty innocent stuff.

Getting about 3 lib dem ones a week, seriously wera, for an environmental spokesperson that’s a lot of paper gone in the recycling
Had a couple of Tory
Had 1 brexit and 1 labour
Greens stood aside

paperwork has all been torn twice and put straight in the recycling – seen brexit, labour, LD, green, hardly surprising is the lack of anything from the tories, in a safe tory seat with a new prospective mp parachuted in from the other side of London.

Cougar

…Not a sausage so far from the LDs

Their canvassing team is probably lost in the wilds of NW Scotland looking for the constituency of Sky and Lochbar.

If there’s any LibDems looking, that’s next to Brigadoon.

Meanwhile all I’ve seen from them is that their entire purpose is to prevent democracy in Scotland. They seem terrified to let Scots decide whether we want to leave the UK even though they are convinced that we don’t. I suppose they don’t trust us to vote the way they tell us.

Basically the same message from Labour and the Tories too. So really all we see is 3 different colours of Tory. Blue, Red & Yellow.

I’ve had a few for the wrong constituency. In fairness I am right on a border so that happens quite a lot. We currently have a Conservative MP who’s best ploy is apparently the scaremonger that they are the best way to prevent the SNP from getting too many seats and demanding another referendum so we should vote tactically for him. In fairness it has helped me make my mind up just not quite in the way he thinks.

I’m not sure if I should feel dirty or not for having been influenced by a political flyer!

I’ve just noticed on the latest round of propaganda, my brexit party candidate is Gregory Butt. The BP do like a bit of nominative determinism don’t they.

We’ve had Lab and LD but nothing else since a faux newspaper (I use the term loosely, as in as loose stool) from BXP in the summer. BXP aren’t even standing here.

On a slightly different angle the Con hopeful is from Amersham some 275 miles away, a friends nearby constituency has a similar situation where the Con is listed as home address in Westminster and Chelsea. I really don’t get that at all. All other parties have local people standing, is it like a crap secret santa thing the tories do? Congratulations you’ve won a town you’ve never heard of or been to and its a no win situation!

I’ve been out canvassing for Labour – we’ve been targetting specific addresses and giving leaflets and posters where people will accept them. Generally having a pretty positive response but my constituency has a large Labour majority at the last election but has a strong Green vote (one of their top target seats). Conservatives have sent one leaflet from some anonymous candidate and Brexit have sent a couple which is a waste of paper as the constituency voted 79.7% to Remain in 2016. The Lib Dems who have usually produced huge amounts of leaflets and newsletters aren’t standing which has probably saved several trees.

Just one from the Lib Dems shoved through the door. In fairness you could put a Tory rosette on a dried walrus cock and it would get voted in around here, so I think none of them really bother.

Two Brexit Party fliers unsurprisingly screaming something something brexit something.
One Conservative mail going “Corbyn = no brexit” (which would be nice) and basically smearing Labour without a whiff of content about themselves.
One Labour flier talking about what a great upstanding member of the community our local MP is. No mention of brexit, Corbyn, or any of the other parties, just solely local issues.

Same here except the Labour one has also mentioned that the Conservative candidate is from Surrey and probably doesn’t even know his way around the constituency. With all the talk of this election not just being about Brexit it’s funny how only one party seems to be consistently mentioning the other issues across the country.

Does anyone actually think leaflets make a difference ?

I don’t think the leaflets are effective now.

TV coverage and social media seem to influence people now.

Unfortunately the press is mainly right wing / conservative and The Mail is read by a largely ageing population stuck in the past

In Galloway so a couple from the snp, no surprise there as I’ve got snp leaflets in the window so thats good but i did catch alistar jack attempting to stick a bile inducing leaflet for the tories through my letterbox so i pulled him up on a few issues (many issues actually) and as he walked away i followed him down the street asking him if he still considers it ok to laugh at jokes about “****’s” (his group were overheard in a friends restaurant as a group of his boorish tory boy acolytes enjoyed an after shoot dinner following a days peasant shooting on the duke of buccleugh’s estate).

Needless to say he jumped in his car along with his coterie of tory leafleting drones and sped off without answering.

****’s = racial slur for those of pakistani origin

Does anyone actually think leaflets make a difference ?

I would imagine they must, or they wouldn’t do it?

I guess it’s just one component in a multi-pronged attack. If you’re seeing the same things on TV, on the Internet, in newspapers, pushed through your door… it all adds up, it must be true then right?

Besides, consider people like my mum. She buys the Sun at the weekend (she likes the TV guide supplement), and used to buy the Daily Mail (for the crossword) until I finally talked her out of it. She doesn’t have any form of Internet access, and her TV viewing is the likes of The Chase reruns on Challenge. She’s probably a prime candidate for a spot of leafletting.

A couple of Berksit ones that went straight into the recycling bin (natch, Grauniad reader), one from the tories that got a round of laughter before heading into the recycling, one from Labour with a free local-racist-brick-target that went into the bin as well.

We’re (were?) a nailed-on Labour constuency here but there are a worrying amount of berksit things kicking about on people’s lawns and stuff.

There was a woman (white, late middle age) canvassing for UKIP in Houghton at the weekend. She got short shrift (politely) from me.

Oh, I’ve taken to referring to brexit as ‘berksit’. You can use it if you want.

Had one each from the tories & libdem, both went in the recycling sack without a glance.
As would a Labour one, but they don’t bother in Harrogate & Knaresborough.

Nothing personalised; two leaflets – one tory, one brexit.
Was just going out when brexit leaflet dropped so immediately offered it back; declined so recycled it straight into bin.
Tory leaflet has same fate.

I just got a new one form a ‘Polling Expert’, telling my why Polls are so important and to be trusted, and based on that basis if I wanted to stop Brexit, a vote for the SNP was a waste. The only way to do this was to vote Lib Dem etc. Checking the tiny print at the bottom showed it was a LibDem Sourced production

Had a LibDem one and a couple from the incumbent Tory. I’ll be following the tactical voting advice and voting Labour

Well the Brexshit party have obviously got their finger on the pulse round here!

Had one addressed to my wife through the door this evening….

Slight issue is she died in September and through the “Tell us once” Gov website she was taken off the electoral register. I have also only received my polling card so they obviously cant be arsed to check who is still eligible to vote.
Still its given me a nice target to put up in my indoor range with a picture of Mr Twunt Farage on it to aim at 🙂

Just Labour

No SNP candidates this time round after the “remarks”

My wife usually throws out non-SNP ones before anyone else sees them, but I did see a LD one for Ross, Sky and Lochbar the other day. If they can’t even be arsed to spell Skye and Lochaber properly they can jog on, although I wouldn’t vote for anyone who’s policies amount to ‘Labour are crap and the Tories are crap so vote for us’ anyway.

I arrived home today as a Brexit Party woman entered my drive with a leaflet in hand, and told her not to bother as nobody here would ever vote for them. She didn’t like that much, which was nice.

It’s 1 x SNP (because Blackford seems to have been a fairly good MP) and 1 x Labour (because the motivation behind their policies appears to be making society fairer) in this house.

I’ve had a fake newspaper, either tory or Bxp, I didn’t read too much into it before it got dumped in the recycling.

A couple of quite well thought out labour leaflets, both slightly different.

No doorstep propaganda, just my daily twitter spat with the local scottish tory idiot, I’ll miss him on the 13th dec TBH

I’ve had a shed load from Libdem including a very nice typeset letter from the previous LibDem MP (going back a few years). No banners, bullet points or shouty one-liners, just words, well chosen words. I would like to see more communication of that quality. Also, 1 from the current Tory incumbent. This is a marginal Tory/LibDem seat.

It also comes with a free “vote Labour” poster that I can put in my window, presumably to give the local racists something to aim bricks at.

Interesting one that. I’ve notice far fewer posters out than at previous elections. There’s a nasty feel to this one and I think people are keeping their feelings to themselves.

Just leaflets this time, SNP, labour, Tories and the local Green fud.

Labour seem to be fixated on what they have done at council level, SNP at Holyrood and Westminster level, Green have generic soundbites and bugger knows what the Tory one said.

I’ve got a really classy Tory one which flat out refuses to name Joanna Cherry as the sitting MP- it’s “Nicola Sturgeon’s candidate” all the way through. Really just rude tbf but it’s nice to know how terrified they are of my MP- queen remainer and princess of popping prorogations.

And a completely demented one from the Lib Dems pretending that they’re the main challenger to the SNP in this seat, when in fact they’re a distant fourth. Also insists that having a second referendum on independence is outrageous after the people of scotland spoke last time, while saying that overturning brexit is just totally different man. They’re going to be fourth, again, but they’ve basically pitched their entire campaign as an attack on the SNP (and as above mentioned, the single person who’s achieved most in opposing brexit), and they just might manage to get a Tory in instead. Yay.

SNP one was pretty straightforward. “Hi, you know me, I kicked Boris Johnson’s arse. Want me to do it again? Me too. It’s a choice of me or a tory in this seat, so you know what to do”