Connaught goes into Administration

The bad news for the staff and customers of Connaught was heavily trailed this morning and we now know that they have gone into administration (more here). This in, obviously, a very worrying time for both the 10,000 Connaught staff both here in Norwich and around the country and also for the tens of thousands who depend on their services.

There has been much concern expressed at Labour's handling of the Connaught contract, including from both City MPs Chloe Smith and Simon Wright, and also by the Conservative Group on the City Council. Questions were raised about the situation surrounding the Morrison bid, the "teething problems" at the beginning of the service and now the financial perils of the company. All along Labour have told us - don't worry, it'll be fine. There are, apparently, plans in place to ensure services do not suffer. I am not on the Council so I know no more than anybody else but Labour are going to have to make those plans public pretty soon.

This whole situation seems to have been handled very badly indeed. Was this contract ever robust enough? Labour have some big questions to ask - but residents on the doorstep tonight were rightly very concerned and many believed this incident was symptomatic of the way Labour have run City Hall.

No wonder Labour are desperate to turn a City by-election into a County election or General Election - because they are afraid of their own record in office.

Councillor Norfolk Blogger

Despite the various clashes, and very different views on the political situation locally, I wanted to congratulate Nich Starling on his victory in the Taverham North by-election yesterday. It was a solid win and on a decent size swing too - he should be proud of that achievement. The ward, which currently is in Chloe Smith's Norwich North seat, is traditionally a very safe Conservative area and I predict it will return to form very soon ;-)

Well done Nich, enjoy being a Councillor and I hope this position of responsibility doesn't lead to you losing your edge when it comes to blogging.

Winning the e-war in Norwich South

This excellent website seems to have taken a lot of time and trouble to review the online presence of all selected candidates in constituencies around Norfolk. He includes some very detailed feedback, including on websites, blogs, social networking and how they all link together. It is very thorough and Chris Bardell really does seem to have made something very up-to-date and useable here.

In an article in which the LibDems are described as just "adequate" and Charles Clarke is "uninspiring", it is good to see the efforts made by the Conservatives in the City coming out on top. We have put a lot of effort into our online campaign and it really does pay off - our doorstepping tells us this too. The Tory effort in Norwich South beats all of the other parties.

There are convincing wins for Brandon Lewis in Yarmouth and also Chloe Smith in Norwich North in their seats.

I am really convinced this is going to be an internet election and we are well ahead of the curve - with more to come still. I take on board what Chris says about the use of the facebook group - although my own page and the campaigners page does make up for some of this - so we clearly have more to do to improve further. Let's go for it!

How about these 2 for good luck?

At a fundraising event we held tonight I met 2 people who claimed to be the luckiest Tories around; everytime they move to a constituency it is won by the Conservatives from Labour.

The pair moved back from abroad into West Norfolk in 2000 - just months before Henry Bellingham re-captured the seat for Hague's Tories from Labour.

They then moved to Norwich North in 2008 - just months before Chloe Smith siezed the seat from Labour in a dramatic by-election gain.

They have then come to Norwich South in 2009 - ...

Labour's Ipswich Choice for Norwich Seat

If Labour shot themselves in the foot by ousting Ian Gibson, then smacked themselves over the head with a mallet with their amateruish by-election campaign, they have done some almost medically impossible with the choice of John Cook (click here for more) as their General Election candidate.

Proving that all parties have issues with selections, Cllr Cook is an Ipswich Borough Councillor who lives and works miles away and whose association with Norwich is a decade old. Now rather than being able to take the fight to MP Chloe Smith, I understand Cllr Cook has already run his campaign into a brick wall as questions about his living and political arrangements surface.

Does Cllr Cook plan to move to Norwich, in his own property, and if so ... when?

If he doesn't, this must surely show that he doesn't believe he can win and won't commit to the City.

Does Cllr Cook plan to move his family with him when he does this to make Norwich his full time home?

Again if he doesn't and simple lodges or stays with somebody then how can he really claims to stand up for local people without understanding our City or its services?

Does Cllr Cook intend to stand down from his Ipswich seat now so he can focus on the campaign ahead in Norwich?

If he doesn't then questions may be asked about how he can represent one area miles away from campaigning in another. Will Cllr Cook continue to claim allowances in Ipswich whilst seeking to be elected in Norwich?

I am not saying Cllr Cook is a bad candidate but he certainly isn't a clear clean choice. Labour will have to spend the first few weeks of this campaign sorting out those issue during which time Miss Smith (not only to let the moss grow) will be consolidating her by-election lead.

Great day for the City

Chloe Smith is now - officially - the MP for Norwich North. ConHome has some great shots of the swearing in here. As the weeks have rolled on, some have forgotten what a great victory Norwich North was for the party generally and Chloe personally. A great day for the City!

Chloe Smith MP

So, what's happened whilst I've been on holiday then?

Oh yes, the Labour Party in Norwich completely imploded, the LibDems fell flat on their faces and the Green bandwagon halted at the steps of Norwich North. And we have a new, excellent Conservative MP in the City.

Chloe took a lot of slings and arrows in the campaign for her age and lack of experience; I think that she will now turn these into virtues as she does a clean sweep of Westminster. Chloe will be a great advocate for the constituency and a superb MP. She is the only MP not tainted with the expenses row and has an outlook on life that I wish more MPs - let alone Conservatives MPs - had.

But for a moment let's think of the campaign. Chloe deserves a great deal of credit for the result (shock horror!) because it was her who set the whole tone for the campaign. The themes of honesty and a fresh approach to politics may have seemed like a slogan bought in for the campaign - but far from it. Chloe has been making these an issue for years and, together with myself in Norwich North, has been campaigning on the issues of honesty and expenses well before the media train arrived at Norwich station. Chloe set the tone, particularly on positive campaigning, and each of her votes is a tribute to this.

Luckily, I suppose, Labour chose this moment to implode and both they and the LibDems ran an ultra-negative campaign. I may come back to this in future but especially the LibDems ought to consider that the party who delivered most literature didn't win, the party with the dodgiest statistics didn't win and the party who played the man rather than the ball didn't win. This result is bad for Labour - but at least they can blame the government - but the real losers here are the LibDems and Clegg personally. I do feel for April Pond - what now for her? It would be churlish not to say well done to both the UKIP and Greens who, in real votes, were big winners in the campaign.

Chloe Smith has a big challenge in front of her - not least holding the newly redrawn seat at the next election. But I tell you, after this election there won't be a Labour candidate in the country who would want to face her on the ballot paper.

My Saturday in Norwich

It was a glorious day in Norwich today and almost perfect campaigning weather; warm enough to be very pleasant but not so hot you collapse of heat exhausion.

The round-the-clock leafleting and door-knocking meant that our campaign team meetings have now been shifted to breakfast time. Somehow election planning was more pleasant when accompanied by coffee and eggs; a change we may have to keep even after the by-election!

And so the day began delivering Chloe's latest election offering to the good people in Hellesdon. Walking around and talking to local people you get the real sense that Hellesdon is ready to vote for change. Most people were Conservative supporters, but those who were not were quick to tell me that they wouldn't vote Labour. The overwhelming majority said they are yet to hear from any party other the Conservatives so far. Again the office was packed and there was a buzz about the campaign. It's a fun place to be at the moment and because of the weather (both politically and literally) there is a great sense of purpose and unity.

A sausage based lunch - and time for the Norwich South team to re-group - was the perfect time to swop canvass stories and discuss the issues that people were raising.

In the afternoon it was back to my own constituency - though my endeavours took me less than a couple of miles from where we had been in Norwich North. I wanted to speak to some residents who were having problems with permit parking (the abuse of, should I add) in their City Centre road. Despite cmplaints to both the council and to other parties nothing has been done. They were very appreciative of the time taken to visit them and some suggestions for moving forward.

I also stopped in to see a new party member who wanted to talk about how she could contribute to a Conservative victory at the next election! There's plenty to do on both sides of the City and lots to get involved in!

Finally a stop off to see some people about a planning application that has been made which could make life very difficult for them. This is a tough case - the current structure is unsightly and covered in grafitti (not great to live with) but the proposed new use could generate more use for the area and thus more cars and movement which they don't want either. The residents want a third solution, which would be good but isn't even on the table. They recognise the problem and realise the difficulty both they and the planners are in. This was one of those cases where I offered impartial advice on the pro's and con's and was clear and realistic about what would happen. I think people really appreciate honesty in such cases.

It was a fine day in a fine City!

The first decoy of the by-election

The sudden stuff-and-nonsens about where Chloe Smith, the Tory candidate in the Norwich North by-election, was born is amusing to say the least. Egged on by blogs - not least fellow candidate Craig Murray and LibDem Nich Starling (who is, to be fair, providing good coverage of the by-election) - it cannot be long before this hits the print media. It would be ridiculous if it does. If a Staffer is going wobbly they shouldn't be; because Chloe is utterly relaxed and honest about this.

When the Norwich South office took a call about this, I text Chloe to ask her where she was born. In a breath, she replied that she was born in Kent, moved to Norfolk aged 3 and now lives in the City. Sorted then.

In some ways, a story about who-is-most-local won't do the Tory campaign any harm. Chris Ostrowski is (or was) London based, Mr Murray himself hails I think from Scotland and the BNP chap is from outside Norfolk too. The LibDem and UKIP candidates are more local. Either way, I'd be surprised if it became an issue and equally shocked if this story made any headway.

I've been very supportive of blogs making the running with the rest of the media; I hope these non-stories don't do it any harm.

Norwich North: And so it begins ...

People have said, of late, this it is now the Conservatives who have the best by-election team and how impressive the efforts were; notably in Crewe and Henley. Today I spent the afternoon leafleting for Chloe Smith in the City as part of the pre-campaign work. And boy was I amazed.

Now I have known our HQ in the Christ Church Centre for a lot of years; through the good years and the bad ones, but I have never known it like this. There was a great buzz; a feeling that we are doing to do very well, obviously, but it was well organised with good literature and a great sense of unity amongst party workers. Loads of people were in and out through the day - a quick turnaround, but we still felt very suppprted as activists. We've certainly stolen the march on the opposition because as they are squabbling and picking candidates we are busy addressing the key issues.

Well done to the CCHQ staff who have pulled together an amazing job very quickly and also to the hundreds of activists who are there this weekend, including my own team from Norwich South. Anyone who wonders what happens to our subs when it goes into CCHQ just needs to look at the quality of our by-election work.

I intend to blog as much of the campaign as I can, but from this start I don't think anyone or anything can catch Chloe Smith - she's round the first bend before the others are out of the blocks!

Boys and Girls, Young and Old

Iain Dale has a deeply thought provoking piece in yesterday's EDP (sadly not on-line) about the trend in Norfolk Conservative PPCs. Newly selected Chloe Smith (Norwich North) got a splash in the paper mainly focused on being a young candidate - she's a tender 25 years old. But the fact is that the Conservatives are a younger party now (CF has more members than its Labour and LibDem equivalents put together) and Norwich / Norfolk have a strong youth wing of the party. Also the Norfolk Conservatives have strong trackrecord of trusting their younger members with standing for parliament - I was 26 on being selected for Norwich South in '04, whilst we also had 26 year old James Tumbridge (Norwich North) and 28 year old Trevor Ivory (North Norfolk). Chloe isn't remarkable beause of her age, but, as Iain points out, because of her sex. She's only the second female candidate in Norfolk for the Conservatives since Gillian Shepherd was chosen for South West Norfolk in 1983. Well done, Chloe - it doesn't matter if you are a boy, girl, young or old, Norwich North needs a Conservative.