Each week a different PPC provides us with an insight into life as a candidate and gives 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 Tim Archer,
candidate for the newly-created Poplar and Limehouse constituency, which is made up of a large chunk of the existing Poplar & Canning Town seat (represented by Labour's Jim Fitzpatrick) and a part of George Galloway's Bethnal Green & Bow constituency. Tim contested Poplar & Canning Town in 2005 and is deputy leader of the Conservatives on Tower Hamlets council.
Monday
I’m off to the House of Lords to a seminar on how the new government of Bangladesh is performing. Charles Tannock MEP and Anne Main MP are speaking on behalf of the Conservatives. Both are extremely well informed on the current situation in Bangladesh. Anne is particularly knowledgeable and it’s always good to catch up with her. Anne and I spent a week in Bangladesh last year getting a better understanding of the political situation. The controversial Labour peer Baroness Uddin turns up late.
Approximately a third of my constituency is made up of Bangladeshi Muslims and they are a community that has historically supported Labour. The truth is that I’ve no idea why – they have been treated with contempt and complacency by Labour locally. The Bangladeshi community has much more in common with traditional Conservative ideals like strong family values and support for small business. In Tower Hamlets we now have our first Bangladeshi Conservative Councillor, Ahmed Hussain, who is being instrumental in getting our message across to this key group.
Monday evening is spent canvassing in Wapping where to say the response on the doorstep is positive is an understatement. We’ve got one Conservative councillor in St Katharine's and Wapping, Cllr Dr. Emma Jones, and missed getting numbers two and three by 50 votes and 100 votes respectively. Most of Wapping at the last election was in Bethnal Green & Bow with only a sliver in the old constituency of Poplar & Canning Town. Thanks to the boundary change, the new constituency of Poplar & Limehouse contains the whole of Wapping up to and including the Tower of London - where people do actually live and vote! The new constituency has a notional Labour majority of just over 3,500 and requires only a 5.5% swing - in the last election, based on the old boundaries I achieved a [12%] Labour to Conservative swing (the largest in the country). My biggest challenge is to ensure that residents know how close this constituency is and that’s it worth voting Conservative in the East End. You can’t beat conversations on the doorstep to reinforce that message.
Tuesday
I go and visit a local resident who is having problems with a bus stop that’s right in front of her house. She is in her 80s and her Social Landlord has done nothing to solve the problem and neither has the local Labour MP. I met this resident the week before at an elders' tea dance and whilst trying not to step on her toes she explained the problem she’s having to me. The bus stop is literally two meters from her front window and people using the bus stop seem to see her front garden as an extension of the bus stop! Plants are destroyed, dog ends litter her garden and what should be a peaceful retirement home is in the front line in the war against anti-social behaviour. What can be done? Well, the bus stop could be moved 10 yards down the road where there is a patch of grass rather than houses. Or the social landlord could build her a little brick wall with railings as they have done for another resident round the corner. I’m on the case and am prepared to build the wall myself if I have to. I come across dozens of residents like this, who are turning to me and the other Conservative councillors in Tower Hamlets to help them because their own Labour ward councillors and Labour MP just aren’t interested.
Tuesday evening: first a spot of canvassing in Millwall with our Conservative Councillors there. I’m doing a Crime Survey across the constituency – it’s a great way to break the ice and then get on to talking about voting intentions. We pick up plenty of issues to work on and plenty of support. Only one socialist and he’s a bit apologetic about it! Next I’m off to Channel S in Walthamstow. It’s a Bengali satellite channel and they’ve asked me on to talk about the G20 riots. Labour and the Lib Dems were invited but declined to send anyone. So it’s just me and two ‘proper’ socialists who work for Trade Unions. For an hour and a half we debate policing, crime the budget deficit – you name it. Afterwards I get calls from local Bengalis saying they saw me and will tell all their friends to vote Conservative.
Wednesday
Canvassing in my ward with our Group Leader, Cllr Peter Golds. It's always nice to be in your own ward, the canvassing is slow because people want to chat – a nice problem to have! Then I’m off to the AGM of a local voluntary group – the Island Neighbourhood Project – which seeks to help those facing hardship overcome barriers by building confidence, building networks or just holding social events. It's one of a number of small, local projects that are getting on and making a difference in what is one of the most deprived areas in the country. Blink and you miss them, but they make an incredibly important contribution.
Then it’s off to the Town Hall for a rare event – a full meeting of Tower Hamlets Council. The meeting starts with me presenting a portrait of the Queen to the Council. I’ve asked for a portrait of the Head of State to be hung in the Council chamber, but it's being tied up in red-tape (Facilities Management need to get involved, Democratic Services need to see what other Town Halls do, and the Labour leader of the Council needs to be consulted). So I find my small picture of the Queen and get to the council chamber early to place her in pride of place. At the start of the meeting I make a personal announcement that the picture is on temporary loan until a more fitting and permanent portrait can be found!
There are half a dozen petitions and deputations from local residents – and every single one is about Labour’s failure to deliver – be it on estate regeneration, anti-social behaviour or charging for ESOL classes. The last one is perhaps the most telling. Thanks to Labour, local residents who can’t speak English have to pay up to £800 to receive English lessons. You can have free mother tongue classes, but have to pay to learn English. No wonder unemployment is over 40% in some community groups. Just another case of Labour letting down those who need help most and can afford it least.
Labour are in a bad mood (well, wouldn’t you be?). They don’t want to play ball and refuse to extend the meeting so that we can debate my motion on bin taxes – which calls for the Council to state its position on them. And Labour refuse to hear my emergency motion calling for an urgent inquiry into the Council's use of a tow-away contractor whose actions caused a near riot in one part of my constituency.
Thursday
I attend (along with the editor of our local newspaper, the East London Advertiser) a panel discussion on the future of local media organised by Jeremy Hunt MP. Tower Hamlets produces a weekly, full colour newspaper that’s pure propaganda for the Labour party. It even includes TV listings and restaurant reviews – what business has a local council got in producing a newspaper when there are excellent local newspapers operating independently and on a commercial basis? The Tower Hamlets council newspaper costs local taxpayers almost £1million per year.
In the evening we have the Poplar and Limehouse Association St George’s day dinner at the historic Grapes pub in Limehouse. Our guest of honour is Matthew Parris who has agreed to support us as he is a local resident and the Grapes is his local! Matthew is charming, witty and entertaining and our members love it. We also raise a good dollop of money for campaign funds and I get to meet some supportive locals in the bar downstairs – there is always a bit more canvassing to do!
Friday
I try and catch up with some emails and before going out to do surgery at 6pm. I spend an hour with my 6-month-old son Charlie. I get to feed him but leave the mess for my wife Jane to sort out! When I finish surgery I pick up some fish and chips from round the corner and Jane and I have a quiet night in.
Saturday
It's campaign day! More than 20 of us are out and about I’ve got a couple of teams delivering newspapers and leaflets whilst I lead a team collecting signatures for a petition to get a road resurfaced. We collect two hundred signatures and of course get to talk to another 200 local residents!
Next week's Diary will be written by Karen Lumley, PPC for Redditch. Last week's was written by Pauline Latham, who is PPC for Mid Derbyshire.
