Here are the latest despatches from
the remaining three of our panel of candidates, giving their takes on how the fourth week of
the campaign has gone. This morning we published the despatches from Hannah Foster, Stuart Andrew and Lee Martin.
John Lamont - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Despite the sore feet and lack of sleep, the campaign team are pushing ahead to election day - only four more days!
We've had another great week with the high point being a visit from Samantha Cameron on Tuesday to Bookdonors in Selkirk. Lots of press coverage and the team at Bookdonors seemed to be really pleased to meet her and discuss with her what they do. An extremely positive event.
Eric Pickles popped into Gala on Monday to say hello to the team and to support our street stall. The canvassing continues to go well. We can't keep up with the offers of help and the demand for posters now exceeds supply.
Now, we just need to get the vote out!
Philippa Stroud - Sutton and CheamThe highlight for me this was a visit by Michael Gove. I took him to a school that is losing 15 of its school places at the year two transition from infant to junior. We met with the parents who talked about how badly this had been handled. Watching Michael explain how he, as Secretary of State for Education, would address the situation was inspirational.
Wednesday morning was a welcome break from the campaign trail. I had the privilege of spending the morning at Family Focus – an early years family intervention programme supporting vulnerable young mums. Many of them told me how the project had literally saved their lives and enabled them to do what they most wanted to do – raise their own children.
So the focus now is on getting out the vote and the run up to polling day. Our last round of letters is going out as we speak, before the GOTV push on Wednesday and Thursday. We have people pouring in to help from Sutton and much further afield, all working with us to deliver the change this country so wants to see.
Louise Bagshawe - Corby
Over
the last week I have continued with my own local campaign with pub
meetings, coffee mornings, as well as meetings with Corby businessmen,
the Chartered Management Institute and Corus - a major Corby employer,
which has been a signatory to the anti-National Insurance rise letter.
From my own point of view, it was a week I'd rather have avoided. CCHQ asked for me to be profiled by Ann Treneman of the Times, which I was happy about, even though she's a sketch writer. I knew I was going to be made fun of, but you need a thick skin in this business.
She came with me to an NFU meeting in Brigstock, and I hoped that she'd say how on top of issues such a bovine tuberculosis I was - but alas she made no mention of that in her piece...
Then I was targeted by Camilla Long from the Sunday Times, who is known for her hatchet jobs on Tory candidates. I don't believe in running away from the press so I gave her an hour on the phone. Later in the day, some of the pensioners who had been at a coffee morning contacted me to say that afterwards she had buttonholed them, attempting to scandalise them by reading out some of the spicy bits from one of my novels. They weren't remotely provoked and actually wanted to know where they could get a copy. It was a relief to read in her piece that she accurately reported that the event had gone very well. I think I got off lightly.
But the local campaign was somewhat overshadowed by national issues,
in particular Gordon Brown insulting a pensioner in Rochdale and the
the final Leaders' Debate. It was necessary that David Cameron had a
good debate, which he did indeed. I was tweeting throughout - a
demonstration of how useful social media can be. It's so important on
those kinds of big occasions that we get our message across and it was
gratifying that he won all the post-debate polls.
The national momentum has been reflected in our canvassing, of which we have done an awful lot in the last week. I've been shocked at the number of Labour voters switching to us, in particular in the former Labour strongholds in the constituency. We are cautiously optimistic for Thursday, but no-one is letting up for a second.
