This is the second in ConservativeHome's new ongoing series in which each week a different PPC will provide us with an insight into life as a candidate and give us a flavour of their own campaign and interests. If you are a candidate and are keen to be featured, please email Jonathan Isaby.
This week's diary is written by George Freeman, the candidate in the completely redrawn constituency of Mid Norfolk - which takes in parts of the existing Mid Norfolk, South West Norfolk and South Norfok constituencies - where he will defend a notional Conservative majority of nearly 8,000. From a farming background, he worked for the NFU's parliamentary unit for five years before moving into business, developing new medical technologies. He achieved a swing of 6.4% when he stood for the Conservatives in Stevenage at the 2005 general election. You can read more about him on his website.
Monday
5.45am. Dawn routine. Tiptoe with pint mug of tea up creaky stairs to converted loft office in the attic of our farmhouse in Norfolk for review of the week ahead. Fire up PC and sift mountain of emails. Review and list priorities for the week ahead. Mildly depressed by daunting list of outstanding tasks. I guess all politicians are prone to the same need to matter.
6.45am. Wake the family and embark on the 60-minute morning challenge of getting us all up and dressed and breakfasted and the children onto the 8.00am bus to their new school. The only bit of our life that bears an uncanny resemblance to the cereal ads. At 8.10am the frenzy culminates in my wife Eleanor leaving for work and the house is silent.
Rest of the day in my converted attic office dealing with work projects for clients before the routine mid-week trip to London. My business, 4D Biomedical, is a small biomedical technology consultancy based in Cambridge. Currently working on the business plan for two new research Institutes (Cardiovascular and Digestive Health), advising on the £20m spin-out of a Cambridge biotechnology business, and helping a start-up with an innovative system for transmitting medical images between hospitals using the net instead of couriers.
Tuesday
8.45am. Rush for train from Littleport, nearest station on the fast electric line linking Norfolk to London, for 10.30am meeting with University College Hospital. Advising on the business plan for the new 'Academic Health Sciences Partnership' at UCL, which will be Europe's largest biomedical research consortium.
12.45pm. To Portcullis House for Mainstream lunch with Michael Gove. Excellent event, as ever. Where else can a PPC meet, listen and talk to frontbench spokesmen on policy with MPs and former Secretaries of State? (Ken Baker and John McCregor both present) MG eloquent in setting out our agenda for tackling the all too prevalent culture of mediocrity holding back too many of our youngsters in schools. V impressed by his insistence that modern Conservatives believe in excellence in state schools, and will fight for the necessary reforms to unlock it.
2.30pm. Meet with Stephen Hammond MP, Shadow Rail Minister, to discuss an idea I'm developing with regional business leaders in Norwich and Cambridge for a Regional Rail Infrastructure fund. The basic idea is to trigger a renaissance of sustainable development and infrastructure funding without adding to public debt by creating new regional companies with the rights to operate train and track for 20 years instead of the current 7, and fast track permission to build 00's of thousands of new homes on rail routes. Developing it as part of my Norfolk Way campaign for a new approach to decentralised development planning. Stephen genuinely supportive. Next step: publish the paper and organise a summer seminar / project launch.
3.00pm. Coffee with Robert Halfon, PPC in Harlow. Pick his brains about street fighting campaigning tips. Leave inspired by his energy and commitment to social justice, but slightly depressed by how much better his doorstep campaign is than mine.
Evening - to Policy Exchange to hear Tom Strathclyde give a tour d'horizon on leading the Opposition in the Lords. A hugely reassuring presence who fills you with confidence in Parliament, he sounds and looks like he's having fun.
Crawl back to Kennington where I'm crashing overnight in the attic room (what is it about attics?) of my friend Professor John Martin, cardiovascular stem cell pioneer at UCL, with whom I helped to found Ark Therapeutics 10 years ago. We talk late over a whiskey about the role of our universities as the crucibles of a renaissance in British culture.
Wednesday
Lunch for a group of PPCs with Philip Dunne MP and the British Venture Capital Association, hosted by Anne Jenkin, hostess extraordinaire. Catch up with Jesse Norman, who is as ever fascinatingly erudite on the various strands of Liberalism in his Herefordshire constituency. How does he find the time to be so well read?
Run for 3.00pm meeting at Royal Free Hospital to discuss new
Institute of Gastroenterology. Rushed as I have to catch the 4.15 train
from KX to get back to Littleport, to drive to Mid Norfolk to talk to
the North Elmham Young Farmers. I arrive at the Railway Tavern at
7.00pm, to find fifty 18-25 yr olds and a car park full of muddy
vehicles. For anyone not familiar with the Young Farmers, they are the
best advertisement for all that’s best about rural communities and
engaged rural youth. Enterprising, practical and public spirited, they
rattle through an exhausting list of social and fundraising events in a
spirit of no-nonsense brevity.
I introduce the new constituency, the values and personal experiences which have driven me into politics, and my campaign The Norfolk Way for a radical approach to promoting viable rural communities. Speak about the need for a more distinctive and enterprising vision of a rural economy, New Labour's lack of vision for the countryside, and the importance of political engagement. Great questions and chat in the bar afterwards. Several ask if they can get involved in the campaign. Crawl home with heavy eyelids arriving 11.30pm shattered.
Thursday
Bliss. A morning in the attic office working through the list of tasks. No suit. No travelling. Just avoid the temptation to spend the whole morning on the political blogosphere. We ran out of renovation budget last summer before fitting any windows, so have to come down every 45 minutes for a glimpse of the sky. (Q: When is a village 'rural'? A: When traffic noise is a reassuring presence.)
3.00pm. Drive to Swaffham on edge of my constituency for weekly review with our shared constituency agent, Ian, to go over election planning and preparation. As the new Mid Norfolk constituency is made up of three parts of existing constituencies served by three excellent MPs who are all continuing on adjusted boundaries after the next election, I have decided to focus my campaigning in the 3 year run up to the election around one campaign which connects my professional background in small business, agriculture, and technology with a key local theme. The Norfolk Way is a campaign that insists on Norfolk's ability to retain its traditional rural heritage AND have a vibrant rural economy. Have established an Enterprise Forum which meets quarterly, and started to receive good feedback from local businesses, public and voluntary sector and our excellent local paper, the Eastern Daily Press. Now need to explain to the 72,000 electorate what I'm doing, so busy recruiting a delivery network to deliver an in-depth newsletter to all 30,000 households.
Run out of time to get across to Norwich to our twinned Target seat, Norwich North, where I'm doing what I can to help our excellent PPC Chloe Smith, who is launching a new local business forum. Chloe is giving Labour MP Ian Gibson a serious run for his money.
Friday
Check Monday's To Do list and realise still masses of things o/s with only 1 day of the week left. Console myself that this is the curse of politics. You've never done enough.
11.15am. Tear off to meet with the Chairman and CEO of an NHS Trust in the region for a 'Chatham House' catch up on the challenges of managing a big District General Hospital. They are fascinatingly candid about the frustrations of trying to innovate healthcare under the current 'command and control' regime from Whitehall. Feel excited by the opportunity to be part of Andrew Lansley's reforms to trust and empower local Trusts to accelerate innovation and excellence by doing what they know best.
2.30pm. Thrash to Norwich down the A11. Well, 'thrash' down dualled section, then grind along at 30mph along the 15-mile still un-dualled section. Mull on the fact that Norfolk is the last county of England not to be connected to the national trunk road network. How ever will we unlock the real potential of the Eastern Region's economy to lead the world in environmental and medical technology if people can't get around? A leading Cambridge entrepreneur told me recently he was giving up any Directorships with new companies in Norwich because getting there wasted too much time. We need that Eastern Region Fast Rail Fund.
Evening: Guest at the Strangers Club annual dinner in Norwich's St Andrews Hall. Wonderful dinner surrounded by portraits of the City Fathers municipal luminaries. Mull on how we need to recapture the spirit of the great Victorian City Fathers.
Weekend
Sat morning: quick 90 minutes collecting and delivering leaflets for my neighbour Anthony Little, PPC in Norwich South, before thrashing home to take our daughter Ruby to ballet.
Saturday pm and Sunday: watch the rugby internationals, attack the garden with the children, build a huge bonfire, take Frank to U7 rugby training in Swaffham, and prepare to start all over again…
Next week's Diary will be written by Deirdre Alden, PPC for Birmingham Edgbaston
