Leaflet tactics - are Labour smarter than the rest?

A slightly arcane but, I think, interesting topic this one. Section 91 of the 1983 Representation of the People's Act basically entitles election candidates to each have one piece of election literature delivered by the Royal Mail for free.

In York Central the Conservatives and the Lib Dems both appear to have done the same thing, that is to use their free mailshot to have one leaflet delivered to everyone on the electoral register. So far so straight forward.

The problem arises when you have houses where more than one person is on the electoral register, for instance there are three people registered at my address. The result is that three identical leaflets from the Conservatives turned up at my house on the same day, and then a week later three identical leaflets from the Lib Dems turned up. One of these leaflets get read and the other two get discarded.

What Labour appear to be doing is breaking their mailshot down into stages. So last week we received one leaflet addressed to one of the people at my address. This week we received a different leaflet addressed to another one of the people at my address, and one presumes we will receive a third leaflet to the third person next week.

The impact is that Labour effectively get double or triple value from their free Royal Mail delivery. At the same time they lessen their reliance on local volunteers pounding the streets doing deliveries and potentially make their campaign seem more active than it really is.

Leaflets flooding in

Above is an updated version of my candidates contacts chart showing the recent influx of leaflets from the various candidates in York Central.

On Monday I received a leaflet from the BNP and one from UKIP. Both were waiting for me together when I got home from work and both are the same size and of equally lurid design. This did seem a little suspicious but the BNP leaflet explicitly criticises UKIP so we will put their simultaneous arrival down to a coincidence.

Of the other parties the latest Labour leaflet concentrates on what Labour and Hugh Bayley have done for families while the Lib Dem leaflet contains the word "change" 11 times. The Greens focus on their local work as councillors and campaigners but also include more of their national policies than they have on previous leaflets. Interestingly they are continuing to push the message that the Tory's are not targeting York. Something which can be seen from my own candidates contacts chart above. (Although to be fair Susan Wade-Weeks may have been preoccupied this week what with the assassination attempt on her at the weekend).

Last, but certainly not least, the Monster Raving Loony leaflet puts forward a range of local and national policies. My favourite of which is the elimination of red tape - by making it blue.

Hugh Bayley Leaflet

I got my first leaflet through from the Labour party yesterday. (Not actually addressed to me but to a previous occupant of my house).

It looks like the local Labour party have beaten me to it and got a copy up on The Straight Choice already.

The leaflet is basically pretty positive. Hugh Bayley does not attack anyone. Instead his leaflet concentrates on what he claims to have done for York since the last election. His claims include an extra 5,800 jobs, halved NHS waiting times, £91 million investment in schools plus £60 million on city college, reducing crime and increasing payments to pensioners.

Obviously a lot of these are, at least partially, down to national Labour party policies rather than just Hugh Bayley's personal influence but it is a positive start from the Labour candidate. It will be interesting to see if the other candidates try and critique Hugh Bayley's claimed achievements or continue, as some of them have been doing so far, banging on the sleaze drum.