Thursday 8 April 2010

The Etiquette of Leaflet Deliveries

When I stood for council, the question of leaflets deliveries troubled me greatly. I posted on the subject a couple of times.


And here I am again, delivering leaflets around the area.


I still despair of houses with no letter boxes. It's as though they don't want political leaflets.

But the thing that's being really worrying me now is the ettiquette of leaflet delivering. My early political guru told me to be careful to re-latch front gates as you went in as well as out, not to run over their pets and so on. These are issues of respect. Its the more subtle ones that concern me.
- Should you leave leaflets with known opposers? Should you leave leaflets with massive supporters? Especially if either are way out of the way.
- If you know someone, is it better to leave the leaflet and not disturb them? Or will they think that is rude and you should stop and talk to them. But do they really want to associate you with politics?
- If you do talk to someone - how quickly do you get away from them? You have hundreds of the bloody things to deliver - but you don't want to rush it. It's often nice to talk to people. But.
- What do you do with houses with no letter boxes? Tie it to a brick and throw it through the window? I have left them by the door, but perhaps that's not effective enough.

These perhaps are the issues that undecided voters should use to decide who to support. They go to the heart of respect for the individual, service efficiency and care for the community.

Mind you, I'm not sure leaving the car engine running did much for my green agenda.

5 comments:

Troy said...

Perhaps it would be better if you also delivered LibDem leaflets by tying them to bricks and throwing them through windows?

Sarah said...

Well, one person could deliver all the leaflets; I speak to lots of folk who just find the damn things irritating, because when it comes to the crunch, folk would rather see a candidate volunteering on a litter clean-up, or visiting in a hospital than peddling that samey, insincere twaddle.
Our letterbox is at the back door; the recycling bin is at the front gate.

John Woodman said...

Sarah, I so agree with you, he said oleagoiunously.

Sarah said...

I'll be disappointed not to hear the word 'oleagoiunously' from you, next time we meet.

wife in the north said...

I don't think it's supposed to be that difficult. Perhaps you should just sit down with a telephone and a phone directory and a pin?