Guy Grandison is the Chairman of Earley and Woodley Conservatives, a former borough councillor in Wokingham, and a cybersecurity consultant.
425. In the Earley and Woodley parliamentary constituency on the eastern side of Reading, that number is now on my notes wall circled and underlined.
425.
At the general election our excellent candidate, Pauline Jorgensen, lost by 848 votes; we had the lowest reduced vote share since 2019 in all of Berkshire, and the Labour party has among the smallest majority in Berkshire.
If we had spoken to 425 voters that had voted Labour and convinced them to vote for Pauline instead, she would have won. We beat the polls and the spread, which was predicting we would lose by several thousand.
But how did we do this in Earley and Woodley? First and foremost, we picked a local champion, someone who has been known in the heart of the constituency for years.
The importance of that local connection cannot be underestimated today. Humans are naturally selfish creatures; more and more people are focusing more on themselves and their local area than national considerations.
Whatever the drawbacks, this can counter a negative picture on the national scale. A built in incumbency factor is a natural advantage.
But it only works with enough time campaign wise to take advantage of it. I do not believe parachute candidates work anymore; neighbouring and historical connections can work, but without local knowledge and links you are fighting an uphill struggle.
This moves into the constant work aspect and it delivers results. In Earley and Woodley we canvass across the constituency 40-48 weeks a year on average with increased campaigning in the months ahead of an election.
Having your candidate on the doorstep Is an even bigger advantage; being active both on the doorsteps and social media gives the appearance of a lot of ‘noise’. This is important to the electorate as it shows hard work and understanding of things that are important to them.
This goes beyond the doorsteps, by being active and accessible all the time, by working hard and understanding their problems, by working hard for the residents regardless, it shows that candidates have the residents’ best interests at heart, by appealing to that wide cross section of the electorate for them to know that your candidate is their champion.
This takes us back to my first point: 425.
Conversations, communications, and visibility are the essential ingredients in getting your candidate in front of the electorate early, which helps massively on election day. In Earley and Woodley, we are going out again this coming weekend to talk to residents to reduce that number to 424, and then to 423… until it becomes a problem of keeping the number negative.
Labour’s victory may be a mile wide, but it is an inch deep. We need to learn the lessons of this election and get candidates in place early, working the patch extensively to get that visibility up.
But whilst local champions are so important for both local elections and Parliament, that is no substitute for hard and continual work in the constituency once selected – something that, in Pauline, Earley and Woodley was blessed with both.
Guy Grandison is the Chairman of Earley and Woodley Conservatives, a former borough councillor in Wokingham, and a cybersecurity consultant.
425. In the Earley and Woodley parliamentary constituency on the eastern side of Reading, that number is now on my notes wall circled and underlined.
425.
At the general election our excellent candidate, Pauline Jorgensen, lost by 848 votes; we had the lowest reduced vote share since 2019 in all of Berkshire, and the Labour party has among the smallest majority in Berkshire.
If we had spoken to 425 voters that had voted Labour and convinced them to vote for Pauline instead, she would have won. We beat the polls and the spread, which was predicting we would lose by several thousand.
But how did we do this in Earley and Woodley? First and foremost, we picked a local champion, someone who has been known in the heart of the constituency for years.
The importance of that local connection cannot be underestimated today. Humans are naturally selfish creatures; more and more people are focusing more on themselves and their local area than national considerations.
Whatever the drawbacks, this can counter a negative picture on the national scale. A built in incumbency factor is a natural advantage.
But it only works with enough time campaign wise to take advantage of it. I do not believe parachute candidates work anymore; neighbouring and historical connections can work, but without local knowledge and links you are fighting an uphill struggle.
This moves into the constant work aspect and it delivers results. In Earley and Woodley we canvass across the constituency 40-48 weeks a year on average with increased campaigning in the months ahead of an election.
Having your candidate on the doorstep Is an even bigger advantage; being active both on the doorsteps and social media gives the appearance of a lot of ‘noise’. This is important to the electorate as it shows hard work and understanding of things that are important to them.
This goes beyond the doorsteps, by being active and accessible all the time, by working hard and understanding their problems, by working hard for the residents regardless, it shows that candidates have the residents’ best interests at heart, by appealing to that wide cross section of the electorate for them to know that your candidate is their champion.
This takes us back to my first point: 425.
Conversations, communications, and visibility are the essential ingredients in getting your candidate in front of the electorate early, which helps massively on election day. In Earley and Woodley, we are going out again this coming weekend to talk to residents to reduce that number to 424, and then to 423… until it becomes a problem of keeping the number negative.
Labour’s victory may be a mile wide, but it is an inch deep. We need to learn the lessons of this election and get candidates in place early, working the patch extensively to get that visibility up.
But whilst local champions are so important for both local elections and Parliament, that is no substitute for hard and continual work in the constituency once selected – something that, in Pauline, Earley and Woodley was blessed with both.