One of the most interesting aspects of the rise of UKIP is the validity it seems to give to doorstep canvassing.
For the last ten years at least there has been a reluctance by Labour and the Conservatives to carry out personal canvassing.
I have always believed this to be a mistake.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have retired from personal politics, relying on campaigns generated by the centre - telephone canvassing, social media, poster advertising.
This has its advantages. They do not need mass memberships to do centre-generated campaigns. This in turn frees them from the annoying presence of ordinary members wanting a say in policy and allows much more power to the party managers.
The Conservatives in particular are well on the way to becoming a virtual party - wealthy, full of experts, managing a centrally-recruited candidates list, but with no real membership at community level (indeed they seem content to just see the membership literally die off).
UKIP has demonstrated the inadequacy of this approach.
For this at least we should be grateful to them.
The Conservatives need to be forming canvassing teams in each constituency (not just the marginals - as someone said on Daily Politics today, there is no longer such a thing as a safe seat).
For the last ten years at least there has been a reluctance by Labour and the Conservatives to carry out personal canvassing.
I have always believed this to be a mistake.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have retired from personal politics, relying on campaigns generated by the centre - telephone canvassing, social media, poster advertising.
This has its advantages. They do not need mass memberships to do centre-generated campaigns. This in turn frees them from the annoying presence of ordinary members wanting a say in policy and allows much more power to the party managers.
The Conservatives in particular are well on the way to becoming a virtual party - wealthy, full of experts, managing a centrally-recruited candidates list, but with no real membership at community level (indeed they seem content to just see the membership literally die off).
UKIP has demonstrated the inadequacy of this approach.
For this at least we should be grateful to them.
The Conservatives need to be forming canvassing teams in each constituency (not just the marginals - as someone said on Daily Politics today, there is no longer such a thing as a safe seat).
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