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’s diary is written by Adeela Shafi, who was selected in January 2008
for Bristol East, where she is seeking to oust Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, who will be defending a majority of 7,335. Born and brought up in Bristol, she is a lecturer in Psychology at the University of the West of England and is married with four children. You can read more about her campaign on her website and can click here to donate money to her campaign.
Monday 4th January Today is the first day back after a great Christmas break. Big campaign launch today with Theresa May who I do get on with very well. Many of us turned up for the launch with a backdrop of a David Cameron poster on the NHS. It was a good move to kickstart the campaign with this important issue that affects us all either directly or indirectly – there is always someone you know who is being treated by the NHS at any given time.
Back to our home office where my husband works from home - which is great as it means we can truly share the childcare and we do a great deal of campaign work together. I spend the afternoon getting my website updated, addressing the post and emails accumulated in the break and talking to the local press about an online twitter campaign against the incumbent Labour MP in Bristol East, even though I am not a twitterer… thank goodness! My job is to focus on the real issues on the ground.
I also put together the first copy all my General Election early action items such as the first few leaflets. Bedtime reading is the Draft Manifesto released today.
Tuesday 5th January All kids to school. My morning is taken up with meetings at University of the West of England, where I work, to discuss the new modules I will be covering this semester.
After getting Zaman (age 3) to nursery, I head back to deal with constituency correspondence that really needs to get off. These range from getting Britain out of EU to restoring trust in politics to the hunting ban. Many constituents have responded to a campaign newspaper that was distributed to the entire constituency just before Christmas. The response was great, especially as it was the only piece of literature from a Conservative PPC that they have had in Bristol East in 10 years, so it seems they were pleased to have heard from us!
Meanwhile I am in and out of our kitchen where my husband and his photographer have set up a studio to photograph his new tableware range for his website business. Just to let you know I appreciate good photography and have an interest in interiors…
Kids pick-up time and once they are back, that is it. We will not be doing anything but food and homework and ‘how was your day’ stuff.
I round off the day by a really light-hearted read as I like to alternate my reading with serious and light stuff otherwise I’ll end up a ‘boring politician’. And I never underestimate the value of any experience real or read – you never know when it might come in handy. The power of osmosis…
Wednesday 6th January The Big Freeze has hit Britain today. Schools are shut, the UWE is shut and my two meetings are cancelled. Great. It means I have to spend the day marking which is what I have been cleverly trying to avoid… I spend the morning marking essays on Learning Theory which is not really that bad once you get going. I also talk to a student on Independent Study about her assignment on teaching hearing children sign language. You learn so much from students. All this between mopping clumps of snow as kids go in and out of it.
Since I can’t get out anywhere, the afternoon is spent with going over the Early Action items with my agent, getting permission for pictures etc as deadline is tomorrow. I have to decide whether I want a survey or a newspaper to go out at end of January. Since I raise all my own funds it comes down to what I decide… not always easy.
Still it's an easier day than Gordon Brown, whose MPs are trying to unsaddle him. Again. Politics aside - does he not want to finish all this and just call the election? What a long drawn out, agonising, self-inflicted end.
Still to do: Ironing (2x 2ft piles). Cook dinner. Deal with kids. Research for a panel discussion next week so they can have a brief from me.
I have no shame in saying I am mentally exhausted. I intended to continue my book on British History since 1945, but tomorrow I think.
Thursday 7th January
Snowed in again. It seems that our Saturday door-to-door canvassing session is not going to happen so I organise some telecanvassing instead.
I send an email of support to the Egyptian Embassy where a Bristol to Gaza Aid convoy is stuck in Egypt and in danger. I really hope we can make a difference to helping them on their way.
More marking!
I speak with the STOP representative in Bristol re visiting 2 of the schools in Bristol East about the danger of youths carrying knives. She is a great young woman who was a gang member herself but at 20 decided to turn her life around. Now at University, she campaigns hard against gang culture. She was a friend of 17-year-old Shevon Wilson who was recently killed outside a pub in Bristol East and a former student at one of the schools where I am arranging the visit.
I use the time going to through further correspondence with organisations and constituents. Communicating with these organisations, be it Bristol Drugs Project or The Royal British Legion, gives me great insight into the issues facing them and the people who use them and I am humbled by the work they do.
I put together and send out the agenda for a campaign meeting on Sunday. One of the items is a large House Meeting in the constituency at the end of January.
I finally decide that there will be a survey going out end of January and a lifestyle magazine in February.
My husband spends his evening plotting some pledges onto a constituency map to makes it easier not only for when people need to ‘knock-up’ but also to visibly see where we have to concentrate our efforts. I continue to mark.
Friday 8th January
Today I refuse to mark. But I do trudge in to University to pick up some books on an academic piece I am writing on the ‘Child as a Lone Scientist’, a new module planning meeting and the reading material for it. When am I going to do all this!
Aid convoy reached Gaza!
The afternoon having dropped Zaman off at nursery I go and see some of the key new voters that I am targeting in one of the wards. They have agreed to do postal votes – great since they have around 4 voters in each household and what’s the likelihood they are all available on polling day? To my delight, they also donate £250 to the campaign. The general feel is that Labour is tired and the country is in dire need of change. The Conservatives are that change.
The evening involves the usual routine of feeding, homework, cleaning. I then get down to some responding to the mass of emails that have been coming in. The snow means everybody is sat down indoors at a PC doing emails.
I am still ignoring that pile of marking in the knowledge that I have a week left to get through it.
Saturday 9th January
Snow and ice means no canvassing this morning so it's been a session of telecanvassing in the office while my husband keeps the kids entertained in the snow outside. I then spend the afternoon marking since my regular voluntary work session with disadvantaged young people is also cancelled.
I also arrange to meet up with a group of students who would like to join my campaign team. Young, enthusiastic students are great for engaging with younger people on the doorstep - something which I really think politicians need to work on. Well, I’m on to it – I’ve just recruited a team of them.
The evening is dedicated to family where we watch a movie – well argue a movie, while allowing the kids to drop off to sleep in the lounge. It’s a Saturday night and a break from routine means they value the routine.
Sunday 10th January
Campaign Meeting cancelled due to the dangerous ice. Instead I send a detailed email to the members about what we intended to discuss and what they can do in the meantime.
Snow is intended to disrupt the beginning of next week too, however, I have to get to work on the new magazine and survey content, the canvassing and catch up on all those cancelled meetings, plus write up an academic brief.
I had planned for an action packed first week in the Year For Change. But you could say the weather conditions have disrupted them somewhat. On the bright side, it has enabled me to work properly on planning the run-up to and the General Election campaign.
A majority of 7,300 to overturn in a seat ‘where the axe could fall either way’ means a Plan B (Plan A win election, B to keep my job). But wouldn’t life be easy if it was all straightforward.
The previous Diary was written by Steve Baker, PPC for Wycombe