Another day, another few hundred doorsteps

Door-knocking in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife, Stirling, Dundee all in the last few days ... with Falkirk, Grangemouth, Alloa, Dundee (again), Perth and Aberdeen to come in the next few days. Campaiging is both tiring and motivating. The Labour activists around the country are a vital resource. This EU campaign is really bringing home just how much they are the lifeblood of the party.

David Martin said at the Labour manfiesto launch last Monday that the "stay-at-home party" would be a threat to Labour on 4th June. Apathy is always a threat. And our voters - because of the standards they expect from their politicians - are indeed the angriest of all at the Westminster expenses scandal.

There is no doubt that the last few weeks have been extremely difficult for politics as a whole, but with 12 days to go until the poll, the reaction we get on the doorsteps is not the rage that is reported by political commentators on studio sofas. People on their doorsteps do not behave like a Question Time audience. Voters understand that there is still a choice to make on 4th June.

For example, I have never been able to understand how Salmond can compare the SNP to a Scandinavian Social Democratic party. To take just one example, trade union and employee engagement is a cornerstone of social democracy in those countries. Scottish Labour - unlike any of our oppponents - has always supported and worked for better rights at work. The SNP failed to vote for the National Minimum Wage and their commitment to workers has never been strong. There are no trade union or employee respresentatives on their new council of economic advisors.

Labour will continue to fight fight for fair rights. And that is why we are motivated to keep pounding the streets - and using the phonebanks - over the next 12 days.