Each week of the campaign, a panel of candidates standing in different seats around the country will give ConservativeHome readers a flavour of how things are going in their patch. Here are the despatches from the first three panel members. Later today we will publish the thoughts of the remaining panel members - John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk), Louise Bagshawe (Corby) and Stuart Andrew (Pudsey).
Well it was an incredible relief when the starting gun was finally fired and we were officially off with the campaign in Sutton and Cheam. Having been in a “long campaign” status since January, to see the Prime Minister finally get in his car on Tuesday and make the short journey to Buckingham Palace and kick start the campaign for real was a great feeling.
Tuesday saw us deliver our first 72 hour piece of literature across the whole constituency - about 36,000 households - which left Wednesday free for a parade down the Main Sutton High Street and for all our posters to go up.
What never ceases to amaze me about a General Election Campaign is the incredible range of activity – from banging in nails for posters to a visit by Iain Duncan Smith; from delivering literature to a hustings at the Chamber of Commerce; from late night correspondence to meeting with voters on the doors; from blowing up 150 helium balloons at 7am to answering questions on economic policy – all of it is has been crammed into this week.
The highlight of the week has to be David Cameron’s visit on Saturday morning. It was the most beautiful morning and we had gathered in Cheam to meet him, whilst running our NHS street stall. Although the visit had been kept confidential, word had spread like wildfire that a top Conservative was coming. When he arrived everyone wanted to meet him and wish him luck. He even met our local hairdresser who is also called David Cameron and wished him well as well as offering top tips on hair styling!
Lee Martin - Sunderland CentralWe’ve expected Gordon to go for 6 May forever. Yet somehow events have a habit of reducing even the most professional campaigns to a shambles. So there we were Day 1, me determined to lead from the front, assembled in the car park of the Bluebell pub ready for our first proper leafleting session of the campaign when the texts start arriving to tell me Gordon’s called it. With each bleep of the phone my mind turns to all the things that we’ve still got to get sorted and my calm just shatters – if only someone hadn’t stolen my ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ mug! The rest of the day is consumed by calls to the printers and the team.
No time to regroup that night as I’d a long-standing commitment to do a meeting of the embryonic Eden Vale Residents' Association. Worse still, I had bad news for them. That promised remedial work in their area had been cancelled by the Council not long after we’d announced they were about to begin. Oddly enough the pressure helps. I’m not lynched and at the end it’s ‘Lee this, and Lee the other’. Nobody knows what the Labour candidate is called. I’ve a feeling this might just turn into an election between Lee and “That Labour woman”.
With calm restored – although Tony (my Deputy and Agent) is looking stressed, Wednesday is the day when we get the campaign back on course. The main routes into and out of the city are lined with our “Ambitious for Sunderland” boards, the leaflets fly out and the media calls keep on coming. I write the first “daily” blog of the campaign for my website.
Thursday is a big day. Nominations for the City Council elections close at noon, Ken Clarke arrives on his second visit to Sunderland that afternoon and I’m hosting a campaign supper at Asiana Fusion in the evening. Ken’s visit goes well. He hears what works and what doesn’t when it comes to business start-ups, jobs and growth. Sunderland has had every funding stream going and we’ve got precious little to show for it. Almost all it did was to create highly paid jobs for those employed to deliver the schemes. "Jobs for Geordies" as one voter puts it.
Much laughter at Asiana when I tell the troops that Paul Watson the Council Leader has called me “treacherous” for not running candidates in two Labour wards that we were never going to win. I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to have betrayed the Labour Party by giving the Independents a free run. If I have, then good! I meet plenty of people who think that the Labour Party have betrayed them.
Friday starts with the printers, a haircut and then a profile piece for The Guardian. Shock, horror – I’m neither southern, nor posh. I’m sure that the photos will make me look like David Cameron’s urban warrior.
That evening’s Sunderland Echo carries a quote from me explaining that we were only contesting 23 of the city’s 25 council wards because we want to change Sunderland and to do that we were putting the City ahead of party politics by standing aside in the only two wards where we aren’t best placed to win.
The sky is blue as the weekend arrives. Things are starting to go right. I even fall into William Hill’s on Hylton Road while leafleting and put £5 each way on Black Apalachi. Typically, Tony’s very much pregnant partner, Debs backs the winner with cries of “Come on Tony (McCoy)” – luck of the Irish! Roll on next week. 12 days to go until 26,000 postal votes land on doormats across Sunderland Central.
Hannah Foster - ExeterWell I was relieved when Gordon Brown eventually firing the starting gun for the most unpredictable election Exeter has seen for decades.
We kicked off with Nick Herbert coming to the brilliant St Sidwell’s Community Centre – right in Exeter city centre. With lots of local media it ensured a good start to our fight. We were the only party who made any effort to talk to people in high street, station and the shops. We did discover that 6.30am was possibly a little early for Exeter! Within 45 minutes we had seen virtually no one and were so cold we resorted to a quick coffee, so we were warm enough to manage the real rush at 8am. All week we have seen very few other activists out and about.
Door knocking has gone really well and people generally pretty pleased to see us. On Thursday night I took a diversion on my way home to Middlemoor – a major junction into Exeter. I was greeted by a massive “Hannah Foster” sign that most Exeter residents will pass a few times during the campaign. A real result!
Saturday saw a visit by the great Michael Gove visiting Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education. Considering this co-insided with the FA Cup semi-final, the Grand National and both Exeter Chiefs and The Grecians at home, I thought we had a great meeting talking about a Conservative future in education.
This weekend also had the brilliant Exeter Food & Drink Festival - Exeter/foodie Heaven. A great way to meet people – just wearing my ‘Vote Hannah Foster’ badge and a big smile - we spoke to loads of people. My week was made when I saw the ticket lady at one of the nightclubs wearing one of my badges!