Norfolk Boundary Review: "Coalition Stitch-Up"?

On my way home from work tonight I met one of Norwich Labour's hardest workers, standing on the street corner visably fuming. Little did I know that the Boundary Review had been leaked and if Guido is correct then Labour have a lot to worry about. My angry socialist friend went off on one about a "coalition stitch-up" which sees all the Tory and LibDem held seats get safer and thus more difficult for Labour to gain. Here in Norwich South there are no changes whatsoever, but Labour's view is that no matter where the boundaries took him Simon Wright is a (political) dead-man walking.

Not so long ago Labour held 3 seats in Norfolk - Norwich N, Norwich S and Yarmouth - with an outside chance of NW Norfolk in a very good year (e.g. 1997). In that year they also got very close to taking SW Norfolk it should be remembered but never actually achieved it.

And now what? With Great Yarmouth taking in the staunchly Conservative areas around the southern tip of North Norfolk, Tory MP Brandon Lewis will have even more blue-backing rural areas to "overwhelm" the Labour folk of GY. In addition, those changes would make North Norfolk safer for LibDem Norman Lamb - and even more so when the strongly LibDem (at General Elections, anyway) area around Fakenham are put back in the seat. That leaves just Norwich North where Chloe Smith will see her majority soar as she takes safe Tory territories of Drayton and Taverham back into her patch.

Despite changes, the new "Kings Lynn" seat is still well out of reach for Labour and "South Norfolk", "Broadland & Dereham" and "Thetford & Swaffham" equally so.

So for Labour their best case scenario of a Norfolk with 3 winnable seats is shot to pieces - just 1 (Norwich S) remains.

My Labour friend seethed and sweated. He believed that this is all a stitch-up to guarantee coalition seats in the county and deny Labour representation. Labour, I am told, will fight this all the way. He argued that Norfolk will have 8 safe seats and 1 marginal and so politics could become very boring indeed in the future.

We'll see. But this Boundary decision, I sense, is far from over.

Oh it's such a perfect day!

Yesterday must count as pretty much an ideal day for me. It started badly - with a live mouse being deposited (the third in a week) in my kitchen by my large ginger tom cat - but got progressivly better.

Firstly was the badly needed hair cut at Graham's in Grove Road. Graham, aside from giving a great cut, is also the font of knowledge and gossip in the area - he knows what is going on and is always willing to let me know what people are thinking locally.

From there I went for coffee in The Forum with my friend Brandon Lewis - the next MP for Great Yarmouth. We have, in some ways, similar seats to fight so we like to share tips and advice for campaigning. By lunchtime we were out leafleting and meeting people in Eaton Village.

During the heat of the afternoon it was time for gardening and playing with the kids; including a hosepipe!

And then by the early evening back out leafleting and speaking to residents.

I got in trouble a few years back for suggesting that teacher's waste their holidays by relaxing rather than planning lessons and the like. I am willing to risk it again; yesterday was very productive, very relaxed - bring on the summer!

It's Health & Safety Gone Mad!

My favourite story of the week that went shamefully unnoticed in all newspapers, except that organ-of-truth Eastern Evening News, was the Health & Safety exectuive's attack on yet another bastion of childhood.

The Panto being shown on the pier at Great Yarmouth has apparently been told it cannot partake in the tradition of throwing sweets into the audience in case a child gets hurts by being struck on the head by one. Oh dear. Hence from now on, they will pass the sweets from the front row back, in a calm and orderly manner.

Why don't they throw jellies instead? Or do they still hurt when tossed at some velocity?

Anyway, the point is that we have lost completely the sense of "acceptable risk". Children may fall off swings. They may be hit in the eye by a conker. They may be struck on the head by a flying sweet at panto.

As a parent I've learnt to accept that and so should the Health & Safety Executive. Haven't they got better things to do?

First Tory Councillor quits over Unitary

I have read today in the Evening News (not online) that the first district councillor has quit over the possible unitary future for the county. One of the Conservatives on Great Yarmouth District Council says that the whole issue has been a Labour stitch-up and Unitary would be a disaster.

Now I'm not quite sure how resigning helps this situation but I do feel, cynic that I am, that somewhere in a Westminster bunker some Labour strategist is smuggly grinning to himself because this unitary move might be seen as a way of destroying the strong Conservative activist base in Norfolk. One down, how many more to go? Why, by quitting, are we allowing Labour to get away with this? We as a party must stick together and fight this all the way.

Is this why Brown won't call an election?

On Saturday I went with a team from Norwich South to help Brandon Lewis is his campaign to be Great Yarmouth's next MP. Brandon has done a fantastic job at reinvigorating that association and has run a wide ranging and almost textbook campaign. We were amongst dozens of people out on Saturday and Tory leafleters rampaged through Yarmouth's suburbs at quite a speed. The issue was the traffic snarls at the Gapton Hall roundabout and unlike some candidates (of all parties!) who just talk, Brandon has bene lobbying the council and government hard on this, including a petition on the No.10 Downing Street website. The great thing was being able to meet people from all over who have come together for the campaign - not just from around Norfolk but from Suffolk, Essex and even further afield. There is a great sense of purpose and I hope when Brandon wins (for which he will now have to wait a bit longer) he writes a campaign guide for other candidates on how he did it. This isn't just about money and Ashcroft cash, it's about a style of leadership and campaigning that really works.

A successful day then...

As I made my way around this morning, leafletting from house to house, a thought struck me. Who is going to read this leaflet today? The sun is shining, the lawns are being mown and families are getting together.

I took the most sensible decision of the whole campaign so far, which put me more in touch with the public than a thousand leaflets ever could.

I went home, collected my wife and kids ... and we all went to the beach.

Busy Weekend

Following on from last Sunday's fun, this weekend turns a little more to politics. Today I am heading over to Great Yarmouth to help support their excellent PPC Brandon Lewis and the Conservative council candidates. Yarmouth Borough Council is an excellent Tory-run authority but suffered a few losses last year (showing that being in power locally can be as off-putting as being in power nationally). They've takens ome tough decisions but Yarmouth is changing - for the better - beyond belief. They deserve our support.

After that I am going to campaign in North Walsham for local PPC Trevor Ivory who has made a flying start in the seat. It is worthy of note that Trevor is taking his campaign straight to heart of LibDem support in the constituency - a lot of people are coming today into an area once described to me as a "no go area for Tories." It would be easy for Trevor and his team to retreat into the any very strong Conservative areas but he isn't doing that - this is one fight he's taking to Lamb.

This evening Louise and I will be spending some real quality time together - Emily is off to Nanny & Granddad's house to eat her way through their biscuit tin - so we will be taking some time off! Sunday morning we are going to church and then I have to spend a few hours preparing for next week's full council meeting. The afternoon is a constituency officers meeting, followed by a Group Meeting and then finally (phew!) in the evening we get to see friends.