How a slammed door made me wonder whether the Tories could ever win again

Martin Vander Weyer’s Any Other Business

Bored by the election already? If you want to avoid it completely, I suggest a three-week holiday in scenic Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, where the national dish is boiled horse, the national pastime is bride-kidnapping, and they still change governments the old-fashioned way, with a little help from their friends in the Kremlin. But if you merely dislike watching our own politicians sniping at each other on television, and yearn for a form of debate that addresses real-life issues, I recommend signing on to help your local candidate, of whichever party you prefer, in door-to-door campaigning. I did it in the last four general elections with my sitting (but now honourably retiring) Conservative MP John Greenway, criss-crossing a huge constituency from the commuter estates north of York to the remotest hamlets of the wolds and moors, talking to people about their experience of the NHS, their pensions and savings, their understanding of what should be the limits of the state, and their often blood- curdling views on Brussels, immigration and capital punishment.