Delivering Blair in Manchester Withington
Morning - assemble near the Co-Op Late Store for mass leafleting for Keith Bradley MP in Chorlton Park. Keith is mostly loyal, what Lord Hattersley might call craven, but did oppose the war in the key vote. This is the home patch of the Lib Dem PPC in Withington and though it should now be a series of classic Labour supporting estates it has been Tory and it is amazingly Lib Dem orientated at the moment.
"Angela" a party member, unknown to me, passes by by chance and promises that she will be doing some leafleting. But she's not happy. The iD cards bill for example. Keith says this has been stopped - as if New Labour has withdrawn it. Angela continues on other bills. And the ones she wants have been stopped by Tories while the ones she doesn't like are shelved.
I am 100 doors or so into my round before I read the leaflets. They have Mr Blair's picture on them! Quite small and discrete but it's there. Not shaking the MPs hand or anything. So that's alright.
There has been a fuss as at PMQs the vampiric Howard has asked MPs how many have Mr B on their leaflets. Few have. In fact there are many more Blair imprints I should think on opposition leaflets.
In my experience party leaders have rarely featured on our leaflets. Perhaps things are different here in Withington.
A local Labour supporter gives me copy of the Lib Dem candidate's leaflet. This has the usual utterly barmy bar charts on it. The distortion involved here is huge. They suggest they are just 4% behind while the Tories are 20% adrift.
In fact in the last general election they were 11,000 behind, tussling with the Tories for second and third place. Their messages are (a) "you can vote Lib here without letting Tories in" and (b) "Libs can win". But the fact is this was a Tory seat until 1987 and it's not worth risking any vote but Labour.
The message for floating voters is that if they will produce dishonest bar charts like this how trustworthy is the rest of their spiel? Answer - it's glib Lib fibs.
This candidate is also sending targeted letters to women voters about Ovarian cancer. Featuring the logos of various charities. This belies no previous known interest in the subject or indeed medical issues campaigning. And this is scaremonging on a grand scale. There will probably be just five or six cases in the ward each year. I will investigate further.
Mourning - afternoon I take the new dog and the original dog on my usual Sunday run in Lyme Park. This is what I had done as therapy with the original dog on the day after the horrendous poll defeat of 2003. And after a lapse I have now run here on average at least once a week for nine months or more.
There is a good show of Lib Dem Andrew Stunnell MP posters along the way. Better than a Tory and not classic (or even new) Labour territory.
"Angela" a party member, unknown to me, passes by by chance and promises that she will be doing some leafleting. But she's not happy. The iD cards bill for example. Keith says this has been stopped - as if New Labour has withdrawn it. Angela continues on other bills. And the ones she wants have been stopped by Tories while the ones she doesn't like are shelved.
I am 100 doors or so into my round before I read the leaflets. They have Mr Blair's picture on them! Quite small and discrete but it's there. Not shaking the MPs hand or anything. So that's alright.
There has been a fuss as at PMQs the vampiric Howard has asked MPs how many have Mr B on their leaflets. Few have. In fact there are many more Blair imprints I should think on opposition leaflets.
In my experience party leaders have rarely featured on our leaflets. Perhaps things are different here in Withington.
A local Labour supporter gives me copy of the Lib Dem candidate's leaflet. This has the usual utterly barmy bar charts on it. The distortion involved here is huge. They suggest they are just 4% behind while the Tories are 20% adrift.
In fact in the last general election they were 11,000 behind, tussling with the Tories for second and third place. Their messages are (a) "you can vote Lib here without letting Tories in" and (b) "Libs can win". But the fact is this was a Tory seat until 1987 and it's not worth risking any vote but Labour.
The message for floating voters is that if they will produce dishonest bar charts like this how trustworthy is the rest of their spiel? Answer - it's glib Lib fibs.
This candidate is also sending targeted letters to women voters about Ovarian cancer. Featuring the logos of various charities. This belies no previous known interest in the subject or indeed medical issues campaigning. And this is scaremonging on a grand scale. There will probably be just five or six cases in the ward each year. I will investigate further.
Mourning - afternoon I take the new dog and the original dog on my usual Sunday run in Lyme Park. This is what I had done as therapy with the original dog on the day after the horrendous poll defeat of 2003. And after a lapse I have now run here on average at least once a week for nine months or more.
There is a good show of Lib Dem Andrew Stunnell MP posters along the way. Better than a Tory and not classic (or even new) Labour territory.
posted by Chris Paul at 7:45 PM
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