Get it right...

This post is about the election. Again. This time, it's about design, not content. We received two non-addressed flyers in for the candidates for our constituency.

Oh dear.

Conservatives:

Standard template (as most of these things are), however the layout on the send side is pretty poor. As for the image of the candidate - oh dear. Was that a family picture that you've cropped to size?

Score: 5/10

BNP:

There's about 18

abominations against the laws of good aesthetics here, surely. And again, the image of the candidate is poor. Mr Orr looks barely alive. Never mind the policies, I'm not sure he's going to survive until the

votes are counted...

Score: 1/10

Fortunately, elections aren't about being the best looking candidate. Thatcher won, after all. Nope, elections should be about the issues. And each of these parties has their three point plans laid out pretty clearly (that'll be the tick marks then).

SNP

The SNP seemed to send us more personal correspondence - addressed to Mrs theWeir and I separately. Which is interesting as I'm pretty sure we're on the edited electoral

roll.

Anyway, it's actually a decent letter and an interesting wee flyer.

Shame that the flyer made me think of being here, in New Zealand...

So, have you had any examples of beautiful design from your candidates?

Dear people of the world

I wrote an email.

It went a little like this:

"Hello,

"As I was trying to find out more about each of you as candidates for the General Election, I went online. I was hoping to find out where you'd been campaigning, what you think about issues that affect the area, if you were an optimist, if you had any faith or opinions on fair trade, what you though about justice. About Al Megrahi. Or even just what you think about the place we live.

"I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't find these things out.

"So, I wrote about it on my blog. You can read it here if you like (blog.andrewweir.co.uk). Not too many people read that, but it's perhaps endemic that you are all disconnected from people like me who work hard, pay our taxes, do our best to bring up our family well and respect the place we live. Yet we can't connect with you other than by email. Come on.

"Email is great, but there's maybe 76,000 of us in this constituency, 38% voted at the last election. Surely you could reach out to SOME OF US by sharing what'd happening online?

"I might have a question, but it would be different from my neighbour's question. He might think of something that's relevant that i would never think of. By engaging with many people, we build up this clearer picture of you are. And that matters.

"If there's anything recent events in Westminster have taught us, it's that authenticity matters. That being relevant is crucial.

"It's just a thought. Or two.

"I want to vote. I still don't know who I'm going to vote for. I don't know who any of you really are.

"Grace & Peace,

"Andy

"PS - please don't think that a flat website with a biog is anywhere close to revealing who you are... That's like me telling you my LinkedIn profile is everything about me. Nonsense! ;->"

I sent it to 5 out of the 8 candidates for our constituency.

D'you think I'll get any replies?

UPDATE: So I've had a reply (via Facebook) from Alistair Forrest - UKIP, which I'm grateful for.

A week to go.

And I've no idea who I am voting for.

I'm not really convinced that I am voting for a party because I agree with everything they stand for. In fact, I know I'm not. We don't elect presidents. We elect representatives.

However, I'm not naive enough to suggest that there's not an element of tactics needed to decide who to vote for, particularly in this election. Hung parliament and all that caper.

Please, don't believe the hype. Hung parliaments are *not* the end of democracy. Far from it.

Back to the plot. I mentioned earlier that I had a conversation with one of the candidates and they were unwilling to get into these new media stuff. I'd challenged Lis Bardell to commit 20 minutes a day to share what she's doing, where she's been and what she's thinking about the campaign and see what happens. Make herself more human for more people.

This is her campaign website:

I quote:

"I look forward to a continuing conversation with you – whatever your age - through the website"

How can we do that?

"I’ll also be glad to hear from you about issues that matter to you and I can be contacted at lis.bardell@livingstonsnp.org"

So I've to send you an email... okay. But what if you get 100 emails on the same topic, surely better to publish your response online.

" As we develop the site I’ll be highlighting important issues at Westminster as they affect Scotland and the Livingston Constituency"

But this page hasn't been updated for weeks. Oops.

Let's have the conversation, Lis, but can we please make it open and honest and not in the depth of email. Sure there's stuff you don't want to broadcast, but there's the opportunity for SO MUCH MORE!

Maybe we could do it on Google Wave? Or just start a blog and say hello to your consituents who ARE online.

UPDATE (22:28) a comment on my previous post from "anonymous" (!) pointed me to Lis' campaign site here (and I love that there's photos of her favourite holiday views!) and her Facebook group here. Check them out for yourself and form your own view!

And lest you think I'm having a go at the SNP candidate on her own.

Many of the others aren't up to much in this space either...

Labour (yay, it's a blog. With one post. A twitter account, with no posts.)

Lib-Dem and Lib-Dem (erm, is he actually standing...?)

UPDATE: Charles Dundas commented on my previous post - and is out there. Even on twitter here.

Conservative (just a biog and the same chat as their leaflets)

BNP (I'm not linking to their content, but actually, there's a blog and it does allow (some) comment! Puts the others to shame).

UKIP (who are at least trying, with a forum on the page, but I had to hunt to find it...)

Scottish Socialist (A full-on blog, sharing existing content, shame about the design ;->)

So, all in all, no-one is online speaking about the area, about the people, about the local issues - except (dare I say it) the BNP?!

Hoots, Mon!

PS - the excellent VoteGeek has the full candidate list and contact details. No idea who Jim Slavin is tho...