Labour Councillor and voters

Interviews with Kevin Blencowe, Labour Councillor, and assorted voters.

As described by the depositor:

Alison again with friend Juliet: On the night of the count at 6pm we returned to find our St Matthew’s voter Alison Litherland with a friend, Juliet, in front of the telly waiting for the close of polls. Both had already voted.

Alison said: ”Because I have spent time living around political people I realise the enormous amount of work that goes into running an election and all of it behind the scenes. Workers have to deliver leaflets and knock on doors and they suddenly come out and do an awful lot of work. They gather the lists of names and tick them off, they give a huge amount of time it is impressive.”

Juliet said: “I read all the literature that came through my door, it was just a whim. I had left it all sitting there and then a couple of days ago I thought I would just read through it all. It took me about half an hour and about 20 leaflets in all. I was probably going to Vote Green but I read them all. It could have influenced me if there was something in there that had really grabbed me. I thought long and hard because it is a marginal here, and then I thought “No” because Labour and Lib Dem are ultimately the same and I won’t get the things I want like end of austerity and end of Trident.”

Kevin Blinco, Labour supporter. Labour Party HQ, Alex Wood Hall, Norfolk Street

We found Labour activist and councillor Kevin Blinco at 9 pm at night in the Alex Wood Hall in Norfolk Street still working and getting his “knocker up” list to go out and encourage other Labour supporters to vote.

Kevin said: “The people we have identified as probable Labour voters and they haven’t voted - we try and dig them out, we either phone them or knock on the door and say you have another hour to vote. It was a very good start to the day, lots of people queuing up to vote and I think that the good weather helped. I am always hopeful.”

Ann, another party worker had given Kevin the “knocker upper” list. She said: “We have been very busy, we are working away like mad, we are still phoning some of the area, but in others where there are elderly people living it is not appropriate. Kevin is taking the last batch of the knock ups. I won’t celebrate until I get the result, we are hoping for a good result!”

Students: Rob, India, Eleanor and Raff: We then at 9.20 pm captured the very last Hustings of the campaign at the famous Cambridge Union Society where the Footlights team were engaging students in political satire and spoke to four students.

These four first time voters, who had all cast their vote, collectively concluded: “Every student and everyone our age should be out there and voting.”

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