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 Justin Tomlinson, who is PPC for Swindon North. A local councillor for the Abbey Meads ward in the constituency since 2000, he contested the seat at the 2005 general election when he reduced the majority of Labour MP Michael Wills from over 8,000 to barely 2,500 on a swing of nearly 7%. He now requires a swing of around 3% to finish the job.
Saturday 5th September
Relentless campaigning is the key in North Swindon, and a weekend never goes by without a flurry of deliveries and canvassing of some description. Today we’re targeting three separate wards which means quite a bit of logistical juggling.
We’ve got a tried and tested system here. We operate a kind of ‘flying squad’ of volunteers who are parachuted in wherever they’re needed at quite short notice. This gives us maximum flexibility, which is far better than fixing sessions weeks in advance and has been crucial in helping us secure 43 of the 59 Councillors in Swindon.
Sunday 6th September Unless there’s a specific event organised, Sundays are often a bit of a ‘play it by ear’ affair. Today, buoyed up by our frenzy of activity yesterday, we decide on another delivery session. A flurry of text messages gathers the troops. I’m coordinating the activities this weekend and flying solo. Our agent, Peter Heaton-Jones, has managed to fracture a rib and tear a couple of muscles in some bizarre gardening-related incident. He’s dosed up to the eyeballs on prescription painkillers so I’m leading the day’s activities with Cllr Dale Heenan, our Deputy Chairman Political, so it’s his ward we concentrate on.
Monday 7th September
Back to work – paid work, that is. Running my own company is the perfect arrangement for being a PPC. It gives me the flexibility to drop things at a moment’s notice if something crops up, as it often does!
We are currently working through our various Swindon Conservatives websites, refreshing the design. Today we have finished off the main site. We will be working on a number of our ward sites throughout the week. The - internet through websites, online forums and Facebook - are becoming an increasingly important part of our campaign mix.
The local paper has just published a league table of the attendance record of councillors at council meetings, so I have drafted a letter to the editor, pointing out that my 100% attendance record is an important part in restoring trust in politics.
In the evening it’s our group meeting at the Council offices. Future policy and tactics are discussed and possible motions debated. We follow that with a campaign team meeting, discussing plans for the general election, the local elections next May and our campaign priorities over the next month. I am lucky to have an excellent team of helpers in Swindon.
Tuesday 8th September I attended the meeting of the local Residents’ Association in the ward I represent. It is an excellent Association and I have made some good friends through it. Tonight we were focusing on proposed future development. Swindon has been told to accommodate 36,000 new houses under the Government’s misguided house-building targets. One of the areas earmarked for building is right next to my ward, so with residents we are looking at the potential impact it’ll have, particularly on traffic volumes. It’s standing room only in the school hall. I tell the meeting that I’ve written to Caroline Spelman MP who has confirmed that one of the first acts of a Conservative government will be to rip up the Regional Spatial Strategy which has led to these development plans in the first place. We also discuss how to respond to the Council’s Core Strategy Document, which has just been put out to consultation.
Wednesday 9th September
The inbox has a flurry of very complimentary emails from residents who attended last night’s meeting. This is the side of being a politician I relish - the real local contact, working closely with residents to actually make a difference.
I also had to organise an annual Schools’ Admissions meeting for my ward. This allows local parents to get face to face advice from the Admissions team at an informal meeting held locally. These are always extremely popular. Everything though needed to be arranged today to meet the community magazine deadlines to help promote the meeting.
Today, I also get to indulge my other passion – football. One of my good friends Chris Van Roon has got us tickets for the crunch England game against Croatia at Wembley. We head down nice and early to give us chance to soak up the atmosphere in what turns out to be fantastic match, where England not only win 5-1, but we secure qualification for the 2010 World Cup with two games in hand – brilliant night!!! (Secretly I still haven’t given up my hope of a late call up to the squad for the World Cup, based on my enthusiastic weekly football matches at the Link Centre with friends!)
Thursday 10th September
A big mid-week campaigning day with a major canvassing session. I meet up with the campaign team and the area we have targeted today has a very quick turnover of residents which means we constantly need to update our canvass returns.
Late morning I’m back to the office where there’s much planning to be done for the Party Conference. I’m attending not only as the PPC but also with my business hat on. TB Marketing / www.conservativeprinting.com have booked a stand for the second year (in the picture is last year's stand) to promote our printing, websites and mailing services to other constituencies. Today’s the deadline for booking the stand furniture, lighting and graphics, so that needs to be sorted. Meanwhile the canvassing continues all afternoon.
At 6pm there’s a photo session with Cllr David Renard, one of our members who’s up for re-election in May, ready for a new leaflet being designed tomorrow. Our literature is deliberately light on words and heavy on pictures, so we’re always updating our ‘photo bank’.
Finally there’s a meeting with another ward councillor, which we combine with a very good £5 steak dinner at the local pub as we plan his ward’s campaign activity over the next month.
Friday 11th September
A lunchtime meeting with councillors from one of our wards to discuss plans for their new leaflet, plus campaign plans running up to Christmas. After chatting over mugs of steaming tea we have a good idea what we’re planning and then it was off for a mass photo blitz.
Tonight there’s a big residents’ meeting organised by one of the parish councils to discuss the proposed Eastern Development (12,000 homes) in the Covingham & Nythe ward. The Council Leader, and two ward Councillors Phil Young & Dale Heenan, will be representing us at the meeting. Phil will be anxiously watching his mobile phone as his wife Jo is due to give birth any day now!
Finally we have a fundraising dinner with the newly elected Julie Girling MEP. She was extremely supportive of us during the European elections, repeatedly visiting throughout the campaign, so we are delighted to welcome her back to tell us all about her new role.
