MPs Keep Talking About an Early Election Despite Denials; Perth Canvassers Beg ‘Not When It’s Dark at Half Four’
Downing Street says no election is planned. Party volunteers in Perthshire are buying head torches anyway.
A Perth street at dusk, which in November means mid-afternoon. Photo: Richard Webb, “Evening on the B9097 - geograph.org.uk - 6118”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
MPs at Westminster are talking about an early general election, despite the government insisting there are no such plans. In Perth, the talk has reached the people who would have to knock on doors.
“Please, not in winter,” said a volunteer canvasser from Scone. “By 4.30 it’s black. You’re feeling your way along hedges. You knock on a door and it’s a garage. You give a leaflet to a wheelie bin. I did that in 2019 and I think the wheelie bin voted.”
Perthshire voters say they are not ready either. “The last one, I’d only just taken the poster out of the window,” said a Kinross woman. “It’s still in the shed. I could put it back up, but it’s for the wrong man.”
Bookmakers in Perth report that the most popular bet is “the government will deny it again on Tuesday”.
Westminster says there is no election coming. Perth canvassers have bought head torches, just in case.
The real story: UK politics (BBC)
Letters to the Editor
The views expressed are those of the reader, and frankly that's on them.
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I canvassed in December once and delivered a leaflet to a garden gnome. He seemed undecided.
— Hugh B., Scone, 31 October 2026 -
My poster from last time is still in the shed too. Maybe we could all swap.
— Anne-Marie T., Kinross, 31 October 2026
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