Between the 7th and the 11th of April I was on a campaign tour with the Scottish National Party / Young Scots for Independence (YSI is the youth wing of the SNP). Our first stop on the Wednesday was the Glasgow South constituency where we were helping our Glasgow South Candidate Malcolm Fleming deliver supporters letters around the Battlefield area of the constituency which consists mostly of tenement buildings. We must have been campaigning there for around two and a half hours so our legs had taken dome beating, however Malcolm did treat us all to lunch in Beanscene which was most kind of him.
Soon after that we moved on to the Perth and North Perthshire constituency where we were delivering of more supporters letters and leaflets for Pete Wishart who is the candidate and the incumbent MP for the constituency. We were doing our campaign work around the town of Perth which was rather nice. Everyone was friendly and helpful when we found ourselves needing a hand finding streets that we couldn't find on our own. After a good 2-3 hours campaigning we were treated to dinner by the Perth and North Perthshire constituency branch. Then we hit the road to the Gordon constituency.
We arrived in Gordon around 9pm so we stayed the night at Jens house (a member of the SNP & YSI) then went campaigning the next day. We delivered the SNP newspaper 'The Gordon Standard' to newly built houses. The newspapers were a bit of a nightmare to deliver due to the newspaper like material it was printed on. Even though we sometimes found it hard to put the paper through the letter boxes we went on and delivered around 5,000 papers that day.
We then hit the road to head over to the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency. We campaigned in Inverness for the SNP candidate John Finnie who is currently a Councillor in the Highland Council. During our time in Inverness we done street work which consisted of handing out leaflets to the general public and then later delivered supporters letters to try and get our vote to come out on polling day. After a long day of campaigning Pauline, Alasdair and Cooper the Dog put us all up for the night which was very kind of them and their hospitality was great.
Then after a good nights sleep we made our way over to the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency where we delivered leaflets for our candidate Alasdair MacGregor. We could only visit Isle of Skye as we were very pushed for time as the ferry to Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Western Isles) was leaving at 2.00pm. We spent around an hour in Skye before heading over to the ferry port to make our way to Na h-Eileanan an Iar.
Once we arrived in Na h-Eileanan an Iar we went straight to Alasdair Allan's house. Alasdair Allan is the MSP for the Western Isles constituency. At Westminster the constituency is known as its Gaelic name Na h-Eileanan an Iar. Alasdair was very welcoming and told us a lot about the Islands history and culture. I must admit the Western Isles is a wonderful place and somewhere unique. When we were out canvassing we were invited into housed and given tea and cakes. Such a friendly community and a great place in general. Alasdair Allan MSP and the SNP/YSI team spent the whole day campaigning on the Saturday on the Isle of Lewis. We were out Canvassing and was generally a good response from most people we canvassed. Angus Brendan MacNeil is the candidate and the current incumbent MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar. I wish him and all other SNP candidates every sucess in the election.
If you have any questions please email me at: austin.sheridan.msyp@sypmail.org.uk
Posted by Austin Sheridan
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This article can be found at: www.AustinMSYP.co.nr (blog section)
