Badenoch

Not an OMNI-type question so please no partisan responses. We will be in the UK during the election period and are wondering what election-related activities might be noticed. Rallies, protests, lawn signs, loudspeaker trucks, door-to-door canvassers, cinema adverts? IIRC parties are not permitted radio and television advertisements but "party politicals" are broadcast. I've been in several countries during elections and seen how they do it but not the UK and am wondering what I might see.

:D!

Very few people have lawns. A handful of people may display the logo of their preferred party in their window. If there are rallies or protests I think they would be more likely to be related to brexit than the election per se. In town centres you might see the candidate trying to talk to prospective voters. Party members do go canvassing door to door. I don't think loudspeaker trucks or cinema ads are a thing here.

UKtravelbear

If you are in non residential areas you won't see any electioneering at all - a few posters on advertising hoardings if that.

Large rallies are held indoors and ticketted not general entry. Visits by party leaders to schools / hospitals / factories etc are closely controlled and are mainly for the media.than to convert possible voters workign there.

There may be campaigning in high streets but these will likely be small 'street stalls' where party reps will try and talk to local residents and ask then about any issues etc But with it being almost certainly cold and wet these activities will likely not take place.

The vast majprity of actual campaigning is at the local level with candidate supporters delivering leaflets and canvassing those on the electoral roll.


The biggest difference you will notice is on results night when the results of a constituency are given in toto due to centralised counts and not like in Canada where they are released polling place by polling place. And yes I stayed up watching your election night on my laptop!

antichef

You will hear about it on the local radio and tv stations (mainly news programs), but will seldom be aware that it is happening if you are here on holiday. As mentioned above, in residential areas you may see occasional election posters in windows but you will see nothing in shops and business areas.

As this is a December election you will be more overwhelmed by the Festival of Mammon which will be in full swing and office xmas parties in the evenings.

Swanhunter

Indeed. You might see some election posters. You WILL have Christmas rammed down your throat eyes and ears at every opportunity. 😆

Badenoch

LOL. That I've experienced before. It seems the UK even beats Canada for early and often Christmas promotion.

lhrsfo

It's already started, with supermarkets having fully stocked Christmas aisles, and every restaurant pushing their Christmas menu and looking for Christmas bookings. We very rarely have Christmas elections, and have had not had one in my (all too long) lifetime so nobody really knows what will happen, either in the run up or on the day. Conventional wisdom is that it will be fairly quiet as a) people will be in full Christmas mode and b) it will be cold and probably wet. However, the stakes in this election seem higher than usual, so perhaps interest and turnout will be higher. We shall have to wait and see.

NWIFlyer

Each party receives a certain amount of funding to broadcast a Party Political Broadcast on the terrestrial channels. These are fairly short, around 5 minutes, and usually appear around the time of a news bulletin, so you might well see them in your hotel in the evening.

Other than that I really don't think you'll even be aware something is happening when you wander around. What you see on television in terms of demonstrations around Parliament, mostly concerning Brexit these days, is greatly magnified from reality - essentially if no-one is broadcasting miraculously most of the protesters from both sides disappear!

So you'll find no issues walking around Westminster, and indeed you might gain - I assume as Parliament will very shortly dissolve there will be greater opportunity for tours of the building and the chambers.

UKtravelbear

No they don't. The Parties pay for themselves out of their own campaign funds.

DeeGee26.2

In my experience, it depends very much on the area, how key the seat is. The electoral system in the UK means that only a limited number of seats are targets and parties tend to focus their attention on those seats that might be 'won' from the opposing party.

There will be lawn signs and window posters everywhere, and once a day there may be a Party Election Broadcast by one or other of the main parties, just before 7pm (and possibly again around 10.30) on the old terrestrial channels.

There may be rallies in key constituencies, and it'll be all over the telly, and leaflets through every letter box, but to be honest in most of the country there'll be very little active canvassing.

Other stuff you may have to actively seek out.

Badenoch

Thank-you for the suggestion. I've watched debates from the public galleries before but not actually toured Westminster. Perhaps I can squeeze a quick one in between meetings.

jt82

I can't remember the last time I got a leaflet through my letter box, at least for a general election, then again Jimmy Savile could have won for the Conservatives where I live

LondonElite

You can expect a lot of obfuscation and lying from all participants.

NWIFlyer

I'm happy to be corrected, but I believe specifically for the party election broadcasts these are free of charge to the parties (but clearly someone pays, so in the end that is the public purse) and broadcast time is allocated according to a formula determined by Parliament. If you want to dig further, this came into place with the 2003 Communications Act which banned political advertising so a formal alternative public information service was needed instead (although broadcasts had occurred for long before that anyway).

So, to respond to the OP's question, (s)he can expect to see a number of them on TV over the space of a week.

Other material such as election leaflets is indeed funded by the parties themselves, but that expenditure is also somewhat regulated. Unless the OP is staying in a private house, it's extremely unlikely they'll see anything that would interest/bore/confound them in equal measure!

nancypants

I suppose there’s “pay for it” and “pay for it”, so perhaps the air time is free of charge but the production costs of the broadcast itself (ie filming and editing it) are borne by the party themselves?