Monday, September 06, 2004

Sorry I haven’t blogged for a while – we spent last weekend at a friends wedding in Cley-next-the-Sea in North Norfolk (actually it was former PPC for Norwich South Andrew French’s wedding) and the start of school has been typically hectic. I find it amazing just how long it can take to get back into the swing of teaching – the other day I found myself utterly speechless (now, that is amazing!) in front of 25 year 7 pupils simply because they were staring back expecting me to say something profound. Still, new office sorted and now tings are back on an even keel.

The campaigning continues and we had surveys go out to 20,000 residents of Norwich last week – covering areas from Eaton and Earlham to Lower Hellesden, Thorpe Hamlet and Tuckswood. We’re starting to get the results back in and it looks like a fantastic response! A colleague at work told me today how unusual it was for a politician to actually ask the views of the electorate and she would reply. Another teacher – not ay my school – said that the questions were really spot-on about what matters to local people. I love that kind of feedback! From the first batch we’ve got loads of new members and poster sites so it looks good. In total in the last year I’ve now personally written to around 40,000 people – that’s half of the population of Norwich South!

Also on the agenda last week was the launch of the new Norwich South Conservatives Webshop (great deals for all!) and a new recruitment drive.

The week ahead holds a lot of teaching, plus I’m addressing the Norwich Conservatives Campaign Group tomorrow, have a regional press meeting on Wednesday, out canvassing on Thursday and then friends to stay for the weekend. My cousin is being christened on Sunday in Essex so it’s all go!

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