Political

Canvassing? Watch out for the parrots

Red, orange, blue, green: no real clues as to which party these parrots support.

Red, orange, blue, green: no real clues as to which party these parrots support.

Clearly, there’s been a big omission from Liberal Democrat training for canvassers judging by two of the responses to my post about worst canvassing experiences.

Exhibit A, courtesy of Kelly-Marie Blundell:

Canvassing flats, often elderly people will call out through the door before opening as a measure of precaution. When I was canvassing some flats in Guildford, I knocked on one such door, or so I thought.
“Excuse me, can I help you?” Came the thin, elderly lady’s voice
I replied, “Yes, my name is Kelly-Marie Blundell and I am your…”
But then she repeated it, speaking over me.
So I spoke a little louder and clearer, presuming she was hard of hearing.
“Yes, my name is Kelly-Marie…”
Then I heard it again “Excuse me can I help you?”
Rather baffled, I started again.
“My name is Kelly-Marie…”
And then I heard a squawk.

That’s right. The repeated phrase was clearly coming from a parrot!

Exhibit B, courtesy of Mark Smulian:

In North Devon 2015. A house appeared to be empty but as I left a voice shouted ‘hello’. I made my canvassing speech which was received with silence then another ‘hello’. This went on for a bit until I looked more closely and saw I was canvassing a parrot.

It’s clearly not just in India that parrots feature in politics.

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