Saturday morning campaigning

Spending your Saturday mornings running up and down stairs delivering leaflets might not sound like the most glamorous thing to do, but doing it actually gives you an odd sense of satisfaction. Just from one mornings work you might be able to change the entire course of an election by connecting or informing just one voter who could provide the crucial winning vote in an election. Not only that, but it is also representative democracy in action as we are providing a channel for the representatives to inform the electorate of what is happening in the offices of power. If anyone has free time I would suggest doing something like this. It gets you up and about with fresh air, you get to meet new people, get some exercise and know that what you are doing is making a difference towards getting the message out. I am the king of being lazy on a Saturday morning, but having got up and actually done something today I feel great so now I can just relax for the rest of the day.


I also heard a really funny story this morning from one of the people I was with. He was at the Labour conference and decided that he needed to leave early so as to avoid the rush of people attempting to get away afterwards – a logical choice. One of the last speakers was Yvette Cooper who was Housing minister at the time and so he decided to leave after she had spoken so as not to seem rude to the next speaker. (I would have left before, but don’t tell her that). However his nominated seating was unlucky as he had been asigned the seat right in the corner at the front in the furthest seat away from the aisle. Seeing as the aisle was the one exit, the only way for him to get out was to make everyone along the row stand up. So after Yvette Cooper's speech which gets the applaud of the whole conference, our man steps up to go leave clapping politely as he goes, causing his entire row to do likewise and stand up. Next thing the entire conference has stood up giving a standing ovation to the Housing minister, all because of this guy wanting to leave early! I’m pretty sure that must have been one of the first times that a Housing minister has had a standing ovation at Conference, and it was commented on by the media and powers that be! I think if I ever get a chance to speak at any events I might just have several of my friends strategically sat about the place to engineer standing ovations. Cameron if you’re reading stay away it’s my strategy. We’ve already had enough of all your media tricks thank you very much!


So now after a morning of leafleting and cleaning I’m going to watch Wales snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and be named 6 Nations champions again. I also expect Spurs to beat Chelsea by 7 goals, and for Arsenal to lose by 5 goals to Newcastle. I can dream!!!