Campaigning in Leamington Spa

The first (of many to come) UKIP West Midlands Action Day's kicked of today. The day saw thousands of leaflets delivered provided by Alan Brown ,the leaflets were distributed in areas where UKIP has not campaigned before in the hope of attracting new members and getting UKIP active in those areas. A report of the day by Derek Bennett can be found below.

LEAFLETING DAY IN LEAMINGTON SPA
By Derek Bennett.

As he squeezed into the back of my car on the morning of Saturday 11th October,We picked him up from Birmingham New Street station , Wayne Harling looked done in before we had even set off for our UKIP leafleting day in Leamington Spa. It seems he had overdone the workout in the gym the night before.

With all five of us cosily tucked in my old Rover, we set off to a warm and sunny Leamington to meet up with the rest of the other UKIP campaigners for a day of leafleting which is now to become a regular monthly event.

On that day there were twelve of us from far and wide around the different counties of the West Midlands. Our UKIP Regional Committee Chairman, Nikki Sinclaire and UKIP blogger Josh were from Solihull, Wayne had travelled down from Keele, NEC member Jill Seymour with other helpers from Telford and Wrekin, Glenys and Ray Knight, Peter Hughes and Melvin Ward from Birmingham, Steve Fowler from Tamworth and Tim Melville, Tony Lenton and myself from Walsall. We all met up on the outskirts of Leamington Spa and after a bit of pawing over maps we split up onto three groups of four and hit the delightful streets of that fair town - or in reality the letter boxes as we were out to deliver as many UKIP leaflets as possible on that sunny day.

These monthly leafleting days were the idea of Alan Bown who provides UKIP with masses of leaflets, all over the country in the different regions UKIP activist's were distributing leaflets to promote the party.

It doesn’t take long as you are pounding up and down drives before you start to meet people and have a chat. I have been involved in campaigning since 1997 and the attitudes and reactions of people you meet vary quite a bit as you tell them who you are. Some don’t really want to chat, whilst the reactions of others is very encouraging. In 1997 when I used to go out few had much idea about the EU, whereas now, the majority know about UKIP and you seldom meet people who like the idea of EU membership.

After about two and a half hours of foot slogging it was off to the pub where we all met up for a bit of lunch and refreshment, then back out for another hour or two to finish off. At the end of the day a lot of UKIP leaflets were distributed around the town and twelve weary campaigners wound their way back to their homes. In a months time we will all be out again to target another town to spread the word that UKIP means business.
Ends'

The next Action day will be held in Stafford next month if your interested in getting involved please contact Derek at [email protected]