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 - in addition to a Diary from West Worcestershire PPC Harriett Baldwin published earlier - we are featuring Richard Graham, who is candidate for Gloucester. He will be challenging the sitting Labour MP, Parmjit Dhanda, who has to defend a notional majority of 6,063. You can read more about Richard's campaign on his website.
Monday 18th May
Walk to the station at Gloucester, as I do often early in the morning. The gulls are calling and there’s that lovely fresh May feeling of a day ahead.
This rare tranquility in a candidate’s life is quickly shattered. Sky News rings to ask why there’s a four letter obscenity on my website blog, and did I know that he (the Labour MP) had asked David Cameron to sack me? Pause. I think is this is a nightmare, a late April Fools Day or what? Hoping that some virus hasn't hit the website, I can only say it's a mistake, it's unacceptable, I'm sorry, and it will go immediately. I ring to check if the word is really there. It is. The sentence makes no sense and the offending word certainly isn’t directed at my opponent - but it’s there. I change it to what it should have been (councillor) when updating it late at night. Thought I had saved a draft, but no - I had published. I can only share with other candidates the obvious – you can’t proof read enough.
Various papers and radio grill me and I make calls to apologise to political colleagues, and publish a mea culpa on the web etc. On this day of high political drama at Westminster, with Speaker Martin looking desperately vulnerable, no-one needs this sort of embarrassment.
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