This morning we published the first three reports from our panel of candidates on how the first week of the campaign had gone. Here are the other three...
John Lamont - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk
After
months of preparation, we have finally started! As ever, the planning
paid off. We delivered 30,000 leaflets in the first 72 hours of the
campaign. We had Liam Fox out on the doorsteps in Galashiels on Tuesday
night, the Scottish Conservative Blue Bus visited many Borders towns on
Wednesday and on Thursday we had a visit from William Hague and
Scottish Conservative leader, Annabel Goldie MSP. A great start.
On the doorsteps, the state of the economy and the size of the national
debt were the main issues. All of the canvassing teams were reporting
switchers from the Lib Dems to Conservative. The choice for Lib Dem
voters is clear - it is either a continuation of Gordon Brown's
administration or a fresh start with David Cameron and the
Conservatives. So far, we seem to be winning that war. Interestingly,
we also seem to be picking up voters who had gone SNP in the 2007
Scottish Parliament elections. It is very clear that the anti-Labour
voters do understand that only the Conservatives can beat Labour.
On Saturday, we manned several street stalls across the constituency and the response was tremendous. The consensus seems to be that we have won the first week of the campaign. The backing of the business leaders has given us extra credibility at this important stage of the campaign.
Louise Bagshawe - Corby
I've
always rolled my eyes when confronted on a blog with the "I'm a
lifelong X voter who has now turned to Y", as it's almost inevitably
some sad activist for Y, but this first week, campaigning on the NHS in
Irthlingborough, I actually met a union member who said he'd always
voted Labour - hated Maggie and what she did to the unions - but could
not stomach Brown and this government. He didn't promise me his vote
but he said he was considering it for the first time ever. I invited
him to the public meeting we're holding in the town. If people like him
are actively weighing up the Conservatives, I think we'll outperform
the polls.
The Corby campaign is going really well. We delivered our entire stock
of first 72 hour leaflets and hastily printed off more. Grantham and
Stamford (thank you Nick Boles and his team) sent over no less than 17
activists. In addition, Cottingham and surrounding villages were
leafleted to advertise our public meeting there. Am doing them all over
the seat. Tough questions, good crowds, old-fashioned campaigning. We
set up more in Corby and Irthlingborough.
I welcomed Chris Grayling on his third visit to Corby since I've been a candidate and took him to a social action project; on the first day I was out leafleting an inner Corby ward and made the front page of our local paper. Our wonderful activist George Whittacker has posters up all over the seat. It's a bit of a facer to be confronted with your own name when driving about.
I had the chance to meet staff in Corby Asda, my local store, and go behind the scenes to hear how the recession has affected the local economy. To top off a great first week, our fighting fund appeal has got a great response from local residents. You get so busy and so focused that the world shrinks to the boundaries of your own constituency... When I go back home at night I have to check up on the national campaign.
Stuart Andrew - Pudsey
After
nearly four years of preparation the General Election is finally here
and in Pudsey our team were raring to go and wasted no time whatsoever
in starting as we mean to go on... fighting to win!
The first leaflet has already been delivered to the vast majority of
houses in the constituency and within hours we had our first shadow
cabinet visit by Chris Grayling. He met representatives of local
Neighbourhood Watch groups and helped us at our Street Stall in Pudsey
town centre. It was at this event that we first noticed the very
encouraging response we are starting to get from voters. Pudsey town
itself is represented by Labour on the city council, but we have seen a
marked difference in the reception we are getting. Lots of people
wishing us well and openly saying that they plan to vote Conservative,
having previously been Labour supporters.
What is clear, however, is that there are still lots of people who are yet to make up their minds and this has shown us that there is still everything to play for. Just the sort of challenge that I and my team are ready for.
There have been two national campaigns that have featured on the doorstep. The first is the National Insurance row and voters are telling us they trust the business leaders more than the Government. The second is Labour's cancer patient campaign: rarely have I seen such disgust and anger at a desperate attempt for votes. They are not being fooled.