This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.
“I loathe Ring doorbells,” says Fergus Mutch, the North East businessman who was the SNP’s candidate in West Aberdeenshire at the 2019 election.
“The must-have accessory of every curtain-twitching busybody,” he moans.
He tells of the time he received a “very angry” email from a man in Westhill who claimed someone canvassing on Mutch’s behalf had stolen some jewellery.
The theft, he said, had been captured on his smart doorbell and footage was with the police and the P&J.
And the video – which was also sent to Mutch – did appear to show an elderly SNP activist picking up something ring-shaped on the man’s driveway.
“Was it a priceless bangle, a diamond ring, a platinum wedding band? Nope,” says Mutch, “after closer inspection we realised that it was the elastic band my activist had used to bundle up the leaflets he was delivering.”
Read more:
Unspun | How to read the polls (and how not to)
Over the last decade, the number of us with a doorbell connected to the internet has grown rapidly.
Consumer research firm GWI estimates that between 2019 and 2023, the proportion of homes in the UK that have these small CCTV systems fitted has jumped from 4% to 11%.
The bells themselves – and Amazon’s Ring is the market leader – connect to an app so you can be anywhere in the world and see who’s chapping your door.
And, if you want, you can talk to them.
Not all activists hate the smart doorbells.
One told me of a conversation they had with a supporter in Germany at the Euros.
“They had their postal vote sorted,” he added, which was always going to be a bit optimistic.
“Canvassing folk through their ring doorbell has become a regular occurrence”, Councillor LLoyd Melville told me on X. “Always a bit odd.”
Just after Rishi Sunak called the election, a Labour contact in the North East sent me a message.
“Keep an eye on Aberdeen South,” they said. “It’s tight, but we could be on course for an upset.”
Those Labour hopes of a McPortillo moment suffered a blow on Wednesday night when footage emerged of the candidate, Tauqueer Malik, telling a voter the party had secretly supported the Tories in 2019.
“When Douglas was [the Tory] candidate, Douglas Lumsden, in 2019 we did not bother, Labour did not bother at all, we were hoping that Douglas would make it,” he said.
“That’s why Labour had only 3000 [votes], because we did not do anything.”
The exchange was captured entirely on a Ring doorbell and then downloaded and sent to The National.
Given that much of what happens in Scotland next Thursday will be down to how many SNP voters switch to Labour, you can understand why senior bods in the party quickly distanced themselves from Malik’s comments.
“It was untrue and a very stupid thing to say,” Jackie Baillie told my colleague Kathleen Nutt.
Read more:
Exclusive | Jackie Baillie: Labour candidate's door step remarks 'stupid' and 'untrue'
Just in case you’re wondering, yes, it’s a pretty big deal for Labour’s deputy leader to call one of her candidates a liar a week out from polling day.
That exponential rise in the number of smart doorbells hasn’t necessarily been matched by an increase in awareness.
On Thursday morning, Politico shared details of a conversation between two Tory activists in Kingston and Surbiton, where one told the other: “There is a lot more immigrants on this street than the one we just saw, and they don’t reveal anything.”
“If they come from India they sort of keep it close to their chest.”
Get Scotland's top politics newsletter straight to your inbox.
Again, the conversation was captured entirely by the Ring’s powerful microphone.
“I have had to tell older members and elected officials quite a few times that they need to be quiet as they are still within the range of the door,” one Labour activist told me.
When they see a Ring, they added, they were always careful “not to say anything that could be used out of context to hurt the candidate.”
However, the real problem for canvassers is that the Ring doorbells mean voters can see them coming.
“You can see them in the house, but they no longer answer the door," one said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel