Kirsten de Keyser, MEP Candidate for the Green Party

• IN this the season for political-doorknock-photo-opportunities, the results are usually choreographed, with all the right political celebrities saying all the right things, if not necessarily in the right order.

So last week I get a call from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation: “Can we come and film you door-knocking please?”

Well I am a London Green Party European candidate. I also happen to be Danish, so a reasonable request.

“Can we come now?”

“Er, yes, I guess so”. It would be a shame to miss the opportunity.

Now, this being the Green Party, stage management is not exactly our forte.

In fact, we have casualness down to a fine art: the line-up greeting the Danish journalist and his cameraman half an hour later consisted of me, a clipboard adorned with a “Vote Green” party poster from a previous election (I’d cut the date off), a freebie “The future is Green” canvas tote bag, and a bunch of leftover flyers with the lovely Caroline Lucas’s face beaming out everywhere.

No time to line up suitably briefed residents, the clouds looked threateningly leaden, so we set the camera rolling and jogged off towards the first available door.

Knock-knock. A large, middle-aged man in a T-shirt and a golden chain, opened the door sharply. “Hello, my name is Kirsten, I’m from the Green Par…”

“Brexit! I want Brexit!!” bellowed the man.

A short exchange ensued about paying too much in tax. The camera still rolling, I made my excuses and moved on to the next door.

We now encountered a couple of no replies, a shy lady, who managed to communicate through a crack the postie would have had difficulty getting a letter through, finally ending up at an effusive, bubbly, nanny who – lo and behold – was a Green voter. Yay!

She was so excited that I’d knocked on her door that it took all the diplomacy I could muster to calm her down.

The Danish journalist and his jolly cameraman were absolutely over the moon with the results, so, there we all were, on the doorstep with the nanny, having a great time, laughing and chatting and talking politics.

Their piece won’t be anything as slick as others, but it sure as heck will be The Real Deal!

KIRSTEN DE KEYSER
MEP Candidate for the Green Party