Election fever

I received an interesting email over the weekend which I reproduce below.

Ian

I found your blog 'charming' and very informative. Everybody is talking about how to make our democracy more participative[?] and you are doing something about it.

Whether you win or lose, a suitably edited version of your diary and experience would make a very interesting national newspaper supplement story or even local Morley one. It makes a good speech to students too about the reality of our community life. It brings it alive. It is a good idea for a televison programme but too late for this candidature.

I like your philosophy.

Good luck!

Gerald Hartup
Director, Liberty and Law
Unit 384, 78 Marylebone High Street
London W1U 5AP

Thanks, Gerald, for your kind words and for letting me reproduce them here.

Well, all the leaflets have been distributed, bar the ones Judith’s Husband is generously doing for me in the Rein Road area. He knows that the deadline is Wednesday evening and will do it at his own pace. He tells me he isn’t a mornings person hence 7am meet-ups did not appeal!

I mentioned the irrepressible Judith Elliott early on in the blog, expecting to only have a local audience. As the readership has expanded somewhat let me inform the world that Judith is known to everyone in Morley, is very community minded and involved in all sorts of different things. She was the Mayor of Morley 2002/2003 and was originally a Member of the Conservative Party but has now declared independence. She also managed to win a seat on Leeds City Council last month as a “Morley Borough Independent”.serving Morley South, a former Labour stronghold. I am delighted that Judith is backing me in my campaign, as are many of the other independents (and a Tory!) who have shown their support by taking to the streets.

Here are a few photos taken yesterday to give a flavour of campaigning.

Election fever has finally hit Morley as two flats in Elmfield Court on Bridge Street have put up “VOTE LABOUR” signs in their windows. Of course, the Labour candidate lives in this area and is the Secretary of the Residents Association so she is bound to have considerable local support. Although not shown very clearly in this picture as it is just in shot,, the block on the right has a Union Jack hanging out of an upstairs window on first floor level although I don’t know if that is a political statement or a legacy of the football!

The second photo shows a Grey sign on a typical telegraph pole, just to show what they look like. I have received a reply from BT about getting permission to put up signs- it said they were very busy and would reply to my query as soon as they were able to do so. I will, of course, remove the signs if formally requested to do so which I fully intend to do after Thursday anyway, it is one of my election pledges.

The third photo is of my Campaign vehicle which we jokingly refer to as the “Battle Bus!” You can see that it really is dark purple and is adorned with a rosette in the back quarterlight and a poster in the main back door window. To double the impact, it is the same on the other side as well! You can see my reflection in the bodywork- I recently had it valeted as it will become Karen's car in a few weeks (and it really needed cleaning...)

The fourth photo is a scan of a campaign rosette. I had looked into getting rosettes when I decided to stand but the internet sites generally wanted too much notice. I asked around the independents and other than bright green ones, there wasn't really anything suitable. However, I was tipped off that there was a rosette manufacturer in East Ardsley who could make them quite quickly. Their premises are an aladdin’s cave of rosettery with racks of colourful ribbons & a delightful little corner forming an ad-hoc showroom for all of the different styles available. Their premises are also an aladdin’s cave of dispensing machines that you generally find in public toilets! I decided on a traditional two colour design using the nearest colour to grey and the darkest purple. The lettering is a shade on the small side but normally rosette centres say such things as “Third place” and “best of breed” being the province of agricultural and gymkhana events. They were surprisingly inexpensive, they only cost me a grand total of 79p plus VAT each so I have treated myself to a box of ten.

The fifth photo is of someone who would definitely vote for me if he was old enough to do so and wore the rosette with pride (until the novelty wore off, of course). He helped deliver leaflets without complaint although he sometimes needed help with some of the more difficult letterboxes & awkward gates. Thank you David for being so supportive of your Dad! David has been interested in the Town Hall and the Councillors for a couple of years now and loves to attend the functions, particularly if there is a Buffet that he can discreetly visit and graze at. He also enjoys sitting in the Mayors seat in the Council Chamber, sitting in the Magistrates seat in the Borough court and going into the cells in the former police station, although he finds that a bit scary. Mind you I don't blame him, so do I!