Campaigning on the doorstep is so important.  It makes a real difference both to how people vote and whether they turn out to vote. South Thanet Women’s Forum decided to hold a workshop to look at why we doorstep, what are the best ways of speaking to people on the doorstep and what we hope to gain from speaking to people in this way.

For a whole morning, women worked in groups and shared their experience (or lack of), their thoughts on what the benefits and pitfalls of doorstepping could be and how to build the knowledge and confidence to go out campaigning in this way.

Everyone agreed the morning was extremely useful and enjoyable.  As Keith Veness, campaign agent in the Newington by-election recently, commented at the CLP’s last General Meeting, women were ‘the real backbone of this campaign’ and were, by far, the majority of activists.  Yet, many women are still underconfident in campaigning and we hope that the workshop has been a useful start in building an even bigger group of Labour women ready to continue listening to and talking with residents in Thanet and Sandwich.