Today was mainly spent as part of a big group of canvassers hitting the streets of Bowthorpe. Although I am sure that blogger-campaigners always say this, but today it's true, it was the most amazing day of canvassing I can remember in a long, long time.
The feeling on the doorstep was very positive - towards both us locally and also towards the national party. People who we canvassed as Labour for the last 3 elections were saying they were thinking of switching. The Conservative vote was very solid indeed. Reviewing the canvass cards tonight, what is clear is if they were in, they were voting Conservative. In fact it became the running joke of the day that if you met somebody it must have been positive.
Nobody goes into local politics to be thanked, but what was also nice was the feedback about the work that John and I put in - people were very pleased with the Three Score cleanup, the ASB tackling and the CCTV in Clover Hill. It's nice to be thanked every now and again! One of our group, who came to help us canvass from a neighbouring authority, said that she wished all of our councillors worked as hard as we did in Bowthorpe because it would help us to hold seats given the feedback from the doorstep.
Very little word about Labour - a couple of people mentioned they were opposed to the 20mph campaign Labour are currently running in Three Score; this is interesting because all politicans assume road safety is a vote winner. Maybe not? People were saying that any 20mph zone would be ignored and it was unenforceable; road calming (of one sort or another) is what is required. We're certainly going to have to knock on a few more doors about this matter I think.
Finally a word about Niki. I've campaigned for a lot of candidates in my time, some of whom I have been impressed with and others less so. In fact, I've delivered leaflets for some people where I know I preferred the opposition! But Niki is really growing into the role and I am more and more impressed with his thinking and his doorstep manner. Local people are certainly warming to him. It helps being a young, enthusiastic candidate I suppose! Niki is rallying a lot of troops to his colours, so good on him.
Overall, good to be back on the stump. Being a Councillor means being in touch with your ward and the people of Bowthorpe have given us a lot to think about today. Democracy in action!
2 comments:
I agree with you about Niki; he canvassed me this afternoon and I thought he was an intelligent and articulate young man.
Yes, Niki comes across as Norwich Conservative's answer to Green's Adrian Ramsay. Perhaps distant relatives?
Well as a Bowthorpe resident I appreciate for one the regular Bowthorpe Matters through the door, because the other 3 parties don't bother and can't be bothered. Its a very useful way of getting a consensus of the local issues, raising new local issues and tackling them.
The other 3 parties could learn a lot from Bowthorpe Matters. Perhaps Lib Dem's Focus is a similar in their strong areas, and Greens do it in the Golden Triangle; but City Labour as far as I can see can't be bothered in Bowthorpe or the west of the city.
Kids littering and rogue dumping is a problem again in local woodlands/ access paths around Bowthorpe and Earlham, with a lack of bins near woodlands. But no council official sems to do anything about it or regularly act as a focus to get locals together to act, like organising Green Gyms for litter picks/ collecting.
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