It takes a particular kind of commitment to go door-knocking. I still remember fondly the time I nearly lost my fingers to an angry bull terrier as I delivered Hope Not Hate leaflets in Barking, Essex. And then there's the weather....

This morning, the skies above Glasgow looked promising, but the Radical Independence Campaign came prepared with umbrellas spray-painted with rainbow-coloured slogans (above).

RIC, an energetic alliance of left and green, has made a name for itself holding mass canvasses in some of Scotland's most deprived housing schemes.

Today, it held its first national event, with over 1000 activists taking to the streets from Lerwick to Dumfries, hoping to reach as many of Scotland's undecided, disengaged and unregistered voters as possible.

RIC's Craig Paterson explains the strategy here.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest RIC canvassers at Glasgow's Gorbals

Waiting for the canvassing packs to be distributed, 32-year-old Tia MacFarlane explained to me why she had come out to canvas with RIC for the first time:

I was attracted to RIC because it wasn't full of people with a background in party politics. So many people of my age are disengaged from mainstream politics, and what I find refreshing about the yes campaign is that we're finally having conversations about how to make this country better. ﻿ But with the yes campaign, it can be easy to stay in the bubble with the people who agree with you. I've worked in the Gorbals and I know it's a community with high rates of voter apathy. This is a chance to see if we can get people engaged."

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The canvassing team

Tackling a 23 storey tower block on Caledonia Road, the canvassing team includes Women For Independence veteran Kathleen Caskie, who imparts the invaluable advice that, by getting the lift to the top floor and working your way down, not only as you saving your knees but you'll also have more momentum should you have to run away from a dog.

Chapping on around 120 doors across a couple of hours, the team find only half of residents in (it is a sunny day, after all). With no and yes voters evenly split, half of those they speak to are either undecided or uninterested.

The Gorbals has of course been through a few regenerations since the days when it was home to Glasgow's notorious razor gangs, and the setting for the novel No Mean City. And half to occupants of one tower block is a wee sample.

But it was striking to meet, mainly older, residents who had little notion that the referendum campaign was even happening as well as mainly younger males who were pretty forceful in their determination not to vote at all.

There's not much that the canvassing team (above, with me looking a bit sweaty) can do in the face of a closing door bar offer one of the voting registration forms they carry with them.

One elderly woman told them that she's never voted in her life and didn't intend to now. "What about the woman who threw herself under a horse to get you the vote?!" asks Caskie, in vain.

But these are, of course, exactly the sort of people that RIC aims to reach with their stated aim of increasing engagement up to and beyond September 18th.

For many of the residents that the canvassing team spoke to today, this was the first time that anyone from a political campaign had asked them about their voting intention. If RIC has anything to do with it, it won't be the last.