The middle of the line

I haven’t really much time for writing at the moment, as the General Election means loads of leaflets to deliver. On top of campaigning for Andy King, I’ll be running for Eastlands ward in the RBC (it’s a solid Lib Dem seat, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to win). The evenings when I’m not trudging the streets of Rugby will be spent with my feet in a bath of ice at this rate.

Election campaigns are hard work, and frustrating in that often the main factors are out of the control of those on the ground. Of course, that doesn’t mean that work at the local level can’t have an effect. I saw a group of Tories last night delivering in Southfields. I saw them making two basic errors as they did. Firstly, they didn’t push their leaflets all the way through the letterboxes, which is not really in keeping with the ‘law and order’ stance as it can indicate to a potential burglar that people aren’t in. Secondly, they put leaflets about the Eastlands ward through doors that are in the Caldecott ward. That one is easy to make as the borders in Rugby are somewhat bizarre in places, but an organised party would check these things and have maps and stuff, I’d have thought. I had a quick chat with them, and they didn’t appear to be very local. As I went round, in the space of a couple of minutes I had two blokes open their doors and make a point of giving me (and so Andy I think) the thumbs up. I’ve not had one hostile reaction either so far – mind you, after a few more weeks’ most people might be getting sick of leaflets and PPBs and media reporting and door knocking.

Hopefully though, we can end up in a month’s time with a Labour government – or at the very least not a Tory one, a Labour MP in Rugby and even a Labour councillor in Eastlands.