Let's raise £1,000 for Brenda Porter in Southport

Four hours ago I asked if we could raise £1,000 for Philippa Stroud and thanks to your generosity we just surpassed the target (£1,110 is in the bank at the time of posting). You can still donate to Philippa's campaign if you wish but our aim is to raise £1,000 for as many Tory candidates fighting Liberal Democrats as possible. I'm driving the virtual fundraising bus northwards therefore and seeking donations for Brenda Porter's campaign.

Some information for you:

• Cllr Porter has lived in Southport for 30 years and was first elected to Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council in 2000 for Ainsdale Ward. She has been re-elected continously since and is currently the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group on the Council. She first won the seat in 2000 with a majority of just three votes, but, when re-elected in May 2008 she beat off her nearest (Lib Dem) opponent by 1917 votes on a 44% turnout, one of the highest turnouts for the local elections. She is as local as you can get. Her previous career was in management within the charitable sector.
• Southport is the 78th target seat for the Tories according to UK Polling Report, and so this is well up there in the sort of seats we need to win off the Lib Dems to kick Brown out.
• A Conservative seat for most of the time since the First World War, it was finally won by the Liberals in 1987 (Ronnie Fearn having previously contested the seat four times) and has since been a marginal Lib Dem/Conservative contest, returning to the Tories in 1992 but being won back by Fearn in 1997.

And for all you silver surfers out there, Brenda is 71 years old. Give her a donation as a vote for grey power! As you would expect from the dastardly Liberal Democrats they've been fighting an ageist campaign but, like Ronald Reagan, Brenda is not one to exploit her opponents' youthful inexperience!

Tim Montgomerie

You can still give to Brenda's campaign but now we've hit our £1,000 fundraising target for her we're moving to to help another Conservative fighting the Liberal Democrats. Click here to help.