Winning isn’t Everything

Elections are about making difference, and I’m still recovering from last Thursday’s marathon.
My day started in Surbiton at 5:30am with a deft touch to avoid clanking any letterboxes. After five hours delivering it was time to start door-knocking to encourage Conservative supporters to turn out. Ten hours later and I was still bumping into Liberals doing the same thing, meaning we’d kept them pinned down all day long.
Even if you can’t beat Liberals, it was just as nice stopping them concentrating their resources in Richmond Park where they lost a seat.
Ironically for a party that moans about the First Past The Post voting system, they are usually the ones who work it most to their advantage by mobilising their limited manpower to best effect.
Finally back to Spelthorne to watch over the count -- another five hours –- and about the last process left in Britain that is not electronic!

Conservative Support Firming Up

Expect the opinion polls to move tomorrow after I’ve detected a change in the last 24 hours.
Yesterday LibDem voters were being rude on the doorstep -- always a sign of piousness.
Whereas today (Sunday) even those people who have already voted LibDem (by post) were being pleasant, and wishing the Conservatives good luck -- rather odd, but symbolic I think.

Today’s LibDem Lie: Ed Davey, the man who has already claimed victory in his own constituency-wide leaflet, announced at lunchtime that "People dislike politicians because they don’t tell the truth".
This was after telling us that 80% of UK immigration comes from the European Union, when in fact it’s less than a third; and that the Conservatives stopped counting people out of the country, when it was in fact Labour who abolished exit controls in 1998.
Mr Davey also claimed his party’s amnesty would have no impact on future illegal immigration, when in fact all the evidence is to the contrary, from other countries which have tried it. Goodbye Mr Davey.

Teamwork

Party politics is the ultimate team exercise. If you don’t work together, sooner or eventually you will lose no matter what, but united you win.
So today I arrived a little late for duty, not least because I was a bit under the weather (man ’flu). I was sent off to deliver a hundred or so leaflets, which involved cycling up Surbiton Hill and back down the other side, and the same the way back.
I was then late for the campaigning session, but they put me in charge anyway.
Sometimes you do what you’re told, and other times you give directions.

Hoovering Votes

So what does the Chairman of a local Conservative Association actually do?
Well today’s job was to go to a neighbouring constituency and Hoover the carpet of the venue for their official General Election campaign launch, then stick up posters on the walls.
Unfortunately these were largely ignored by the audience, who were more interested in the fantastic views over South West London from the top of the Tolworth Tower.
They were treated to an equally impressive speech from their Conservative candidate Helen Whately, with Shadow Justice Minister Dominic Grieve as the support act.
Kingston & Surbiton is one of 24 Liberal held seats which need to change hands to usher in a Conservative Government.
Afterwards I was able to convince a floating voter that a new Conservative MP in Kingston would hold David Cameron to his commitment last Saturday to keep investing in the local hospital, something no other candidate can promise.

Visit by Bicycling Baronet

My first job Friday morning was to pressure spray months of mud and grime off my trusty bicycle. This was in readiness for the journey to Surbiton to meeting Sir George Young MP, a.k.a. the Bicycling Baronet.

Here we are pictured by the Berrylands pub, for a campaign lunch stop. (From left to right: Berrylands ward council candidate David Hutchinson, Sir George, parliamentary candidate Helen Whately, myself and Berrylands ward candidate Karen George -- picture courtesy of the third ward candidate Peter Topp)
Unlike Sir George, I’m not yet up for taking my bike on the buses. However, hopping on the train is very efficient, though you have to avoid the morning and evening rush hours.

Vote For Change

Some people question the enjoyment of campaigning for votes at election time. Well for a seasoned politician it is always invigorating.
People always have something different to say, and they can often be more demanding than even Jeremy Paxman, the famous BBC inquisitor.
We had great fun this afternoon bumping into people at the shopping parades in Chessington.
Admittedly there’s a few that are still happy with Labour, and many still unsure. But the majority want to see the back of Gordon Brown.
Just one fly in the ointment though. Those that think voting for Britain’s third party can do the trick. When you point out that historically that Party has always propped up a Labour Government, they come to their senses and agree that the only vote for change is a vote for the Conservatives.

Kingston, worth fighting for!

That is the Conservative slogan to win back control of the local council next month, after eight years of financial mismanagement by Britain’s third party, with now the highest property tax in southern England. Plus a mansion tax in the pipeline!
Over a hundred local residents packed a cinema theatre in central Kingston upon Thames for the official launch of the Conservatives' Borough election campaign this Wednesday evening. A series of polished speeches by some of the council candidates were interspersed with their own video reports on local issues.
Then there were presentations by neighbouring MP Justine Greening and local parliamentary candidates Helen Whately and Zac Goldsmith.
Zac explained why only the Conservatives understand that preserving the environment is about so much more than carbon. For example hiking charges for parking near local shops just encourages people to drive further afield to hypermarkets. And people avoid residential parking charges by paving their front gardens, further blighting the street scene.
Above all, green taxes should no longer be stealth taxes, penalizing past choices, but be accompanied by incentives to promote responsible living.

No Council Tax Increase

Last night in Kingston the Conservatives set out a detailed budget, showing how to freeze the local council tax whilst maintaining services to the public.
Unfortunately this will be of no benefit to residents of the Royal Borough -- who already pay the highest rate of council tax in London -- because Britain’s third party who run the Council imposed a further 1.9% increase regardless.
The same evening Spelthorne joined a long line of Conservative run councils that are freezing council tax this year, specifically to ease the burden on the less well off caused by Labour’s recession.
I couldn’t believe it when one councillor from the minority party criticised the Conservative budget proposal for lacking in detail -- this from a party that yet again failed to present an alternative budget for the 19th year in a row. Nevertheless their lack of support demonstrated a commitment to raising the tax in Spelthorne as elsewhere.

The Game’s Up

I was going to blog today how the game’s up for Labour, but that can keep for another day.
There’s a small minority party -- “the third party” -- who are now resorting to desperate measures to save their seats.
They’ve started this rumour that Kingston Hospital is set to close. A classic wheeze, because they can then campaign to keep it open, and claim the credit when it stays open. Meanwhile everyone gets worried, both patients and staff, and recruitment suffers.
The Conservative Party is the only British political party committed to increasing NHS expenditure, and specifically would impose an immediate moratorium on closures of A&E (Emergency Room) and maternity units nationwide -- services allegedly threatened at Kingston. For more see Helen Whately.
So I warn the third party party: “Be careful what your stir”.