26 February (Part 2) - The next hopeful to arrive on Platform 1
One of the very first emails I received after starting Bonkers was this one on 4th November 2009…
I have been having a read of your website and thought I should say hello. As you
will know John Austin is standing down at the next election and I have been
selected as the Labour candidate to stand for Erith & Thamesmead.
I have
a website and am always contactable by email.
And since then I have contacted Teresa Pearce to ask a question a fair number of times.
That is one way of making your presence felt and creating a good impression but
some candidates adopt a different technique.
One is standing on a windy station platform to make a King Canute style video that
aims to make the trains run on time. A laudable aim although I fear the 12 car
train ambition is technically unachievable.
While not making videos the Conservative candidate for Erith and Thamesmead is
continuing to canvass in the outermost corner of the constituency,
Northumberland Heath. If Anna’s Twittering is any guide she looked into
Thamesmead once and Plumstead has yet to get a mention. Maybe it will fare
better now that her constituency association is
no longer run by Bexley councillors.
Ms. Firth claims a lot of support in Northumberland Heath but she won’t be
elected on the 100% vote of a tiny portion of the electorate; like it or or not,
the less well off have votes too.
I
have put my cross against the Conservative name at every General Election
since 1964 but that record is in dire jeopardy.
Cameron may look more the part than his rivals but I have lost count of the times he has
been the antithesis of a proper Conservative. I doubt even Anna could persuade me I am wrong, and I
doubt she will even try. But it must be voters like me who are most in need of her attention.
Perhaps I just live in the wrong place.