I am absolutely drenched but it has been worth it. I’ve spent the last few hours ‘canvassing’ and, as ever, thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

For the uninitiated ‘canvassing’ is the word we use to describe the process of going door-to-door in the constituency and talking to voters.

For the initiated I say this; I mean it, I really do enjoy the door knocking. No, don’t shake your head at me, I really do! I know many of you will think I’m crazy but I stand by my statement. I love it.

So, why do I enjoy it and why do I think it’s worthwhile? It seems to me that most individuals have pre-determined ideas of what politicians are like and the only way to break the often negative perception is for politicians to get out there and meet people.

This is not as easy as it sounds. In the constituency I hope to represent the electorate currently stands at around 67,000 and that is a lot of doors to knock on! It is a great deal of work so the only thing you can do is get your list of names and go. Just keep going week after week in the hope of getting to as many as possible.

I didn’t always enjoy it. I clearly remember the first time I went canvassing. I remember how scared I was. I remember fumbling my words and I recall how much I wanted the session to end.

For a new canvasser that first morning out with the team can be an exciting one. Chances are you’ve already been out ‘delivering’ or posting party literature through thousands of doors. The intricacies and disciplines of ‘delivering’ I’m happy to cover elsewhere. I, like any other political activist, could easily write 1,000 words on letterbox design and potential finger injuries. But the difference between ‘canvassing’ and ‘delivering’ is huge.

The most important team member in any canvassing session is the person on ‘the board’. They’ll have the list of voters and their voting intention. What do I mean by voting intention? You know when you get a knock on the door and people ask who you’re voting for? The data that you provide gets stored on party registers and it helps to guide activists to the right people to talk to whilst out canvassing.

So, counter-intuitively, when you tell canvassers to go away without answering their questions you are unintentionally ensuring they come back at a later date as you’ll be a blank on the register.

Your job as the canvasser is to get the information from the Board before approaching a door. The Board will turn toward you and say “Peter, number six, a Mr and Mrs Thomas - didn’t vote last time,” and off you go to number six to see what their thinking is this time.

On the first occasion I did this I’d forgotten the name of the family by the time I turned away from the Board. I daren’t go back as I didn’t want to seem stupid so I charged on in the hope of simply blagging it.

In those days you didn’t have the clues to help you get ready that the amateur Sherlock has these days. Now, if I’m going up a drive, I’ll have a quick look at the car. Car seats in the back will tell me that the person may wish to talk about school places. The recycling bins that sit outside of properties also give you loads of material. If I can see a copy of the Daily Mail sticking out of the top of the paper bin I’ll have an idea of what might come up. People are also quite keen to campaign on single subjects from their front windows. It is not uncommon to find ‘Ban Trident’ or ‘No to Fracking’ stickers on people’s front window. Modern life provides a world of information that a canvasser can utilise. It wasn’t so when I started.

I gave that first door a limp knock and prayed that they were not in. As the door impatiently opened I detected a huge lump in my throat but discovered that I’d already started talking without really inviting my brain to be a part of the process.

“Hello. I’m just calling because...election. Did you want to talk? Election. Voting, will you..are you..?”

“No thanks.” Door closes.

I span on my heels and headed back to the Board.

“Well?” the Board wishes to know how they’ll vote this time.

“Not sure.”

“OK. Number 18. Mr. Smith and Miss Jones, last time they were against.”And off I went again to repeat the humiliation. This pretty much carried on for four hours.

The hope is that when the Board provides you with your contact you get a ‘friendly’. Somebody who is supportive of you and all of the hard work you and the team are doing. When you get one of these you skip to the door and happily thump upon it much like a returning hero. There is nothing as depressing as when the door has been incorrectly canvassed and you find that you are up against an ardent and committed opponent who would like to tell you why you, personally, are responsible for most of the world’s ills. This happened to me on my first ever morning canvassing.

I also made the fatal mistake of saying “yes” when the person said to me “would you like to come in?” This set off a chain of events which I hadn’t considered. I’d been inside the house arguing my party’s record over the last 60 years (I was 20ish at the time) for about 35 minutes. The individual had started to make some concessions from their initial wholly negative position when I noticed my colleagues frantically running around outside. Sensing that they were looking for me I made my excuses to go. “I guess you are not all bad,” the voter kindly said as I left the flat.

“There you are!” exclaimed the Board. “We were really worried. You’ve been gone for nearly an hour.”

“Sorry,” I replied. “We got chatting.”

“Well? What are they?”

“Erm,” I stuttered. “I’m really not sure.”

After all of that time all I could really say was that they were either no longer, or never were, with us. The Board looked frustrated and said “Well we’ve moved streets now. Number 10, Mr Brown and Mr Evans, didn’t vote last time...”

I have got better. Over the last 15 years I am far more at ease talking to people and now genuinely enjoy it. But it is still not easy, you still get nervous but I now have a better idea of its value. When I see new people joining the team and canvassing for the first time I remember that awful morning when I did it for the first time and I wish them well. The service they provide is vitally important. All of the nerves and agony provide a very worthwhile service.

For politics to regain some of its standing in the public eye I believe that the public need to meet political activists to see that, far from being a well oiled and disciplined machine, the canvassers are volunteers and neighbours giving up their free time to talk about what they believe and how they feel they would like to help. I’m pleased it’s amateur and I’m pleased it’s awkward because that is what makes it truthful and we need that more than ever.

Peter can be contacted via his website www.peterfortune.co.uk or Twitter @petertfortune