London!

A night out with friends from work tonight for a bit of a change from the election fever!

It was good to catch up with John, whose official leaving do I missed earlier in the year because of full council.

We met up at liverpool street station and walked down to the lovely Tayyabs which I would reccomend wholeheartedly, although dont forget to bring your own alcohol if you want to drink.

It was nice to be away from politics for a short while, although the talk of the table was about the leaders debate that was on TV tonight (I recorded it to watch now - sad political junky that I am)

A day in Harlow

So today I took a days annual leave from work to stay in Harlow and work on the election campaign instead.

First up was a meeting for all the Agents for the local elections (I am our Agent). Agents are there to keep the candidates within the law during election campaigns and to represent the candidates. It involves monitoring what is being spent and a lot of paperwork. Harlow Council is a good council for working with the agents of all the partys and holds helpful breifing sessions where all the agents can ask questions and hear the latest from the returning officer. I found out about the arrangements for the count on election night and such like.

The rest of the day was spent in the Party office, mainly printing leaflets for an envelope stuffing excercise on saturday morning; but I also spent a considerable ammount of time doing basic things like answering the phone and answering queries from the public, arranging for our poster team to visit with election sign boards and the like and handing out leaflets to vounteers for delivery when they popped by.

All in all a very satisfying day with lots achieved.

Mrs J's Birthday

It was my wife, the other Cllr Johnson's birthday today.

So of course I spent the day treating her to breakfast in bed and bowing to her every whim? Nope - haven't you heard.... there is an election campaign on.

By 08:30 I was in the party office making sure that our delvivery and canvass teams had everthing that they needed for the day. Meeting with Russell the "agent" for the general election; I am agent for the local election and deputy chairman political of Harlow Conservatives so there is quite a bit of crossover in our roles so we keep in touch regualarly during election time to ensure everything runs smooth.

After that was finished we had a visit from my friend Peter, who helps me with anything stats and new media related. We had a very interesting discussion about how to use facebook to get our message to people, particularly those in the 18-24 year old age bracket.

Being very willing to pitch in, after our meeting Peter came out delvivering leaflets with me in and around Tye Green Village, one of the original villages that Harlow was built on top of and now is part of the Bush Fair ward that Dan Lucia is trying to win from the Lib Dems in the local elections. It was a warm morning and delivering with Peter, being able to chat as we went was nice.

The day was very successful in terms of outside help. Our MEP and good friend of Harlow Geoffrey Van Orden came to help campaign with Rob and James Cleverly the London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley came over to help too! Many thanks to Geoffrey and James!

I finally left the party office about an hour ago.

So the Conservative Party has had my day, but the evening belongs to my wife. Her friends are all almost here and we are off out for a surprise... I wont say here in case it ruins its for her.

Ending the week with some crisps

A busy day at work, followed when I got home with an urgent call from a resident with an issue of someone blocking their driveway. We managed to find the owner of the car and get it moved but the resident was obviously not happy.

After that I spent some time writing the last of some leaflets that I had been working on for our local election candidates.

Since it is the other Cllr Johnson's birthday tomorrow we have a house guest this weekend, and so with my wife and her best mate on the couch chatting and watching trashy TV I took the opportunity to head over to Robert's house in New Hall (just round the corner really) and meet up with the core campaign team.

We like to get together during election time at times when it wont impact on canvassing or delivery time so Friday night is an oft favorite.

First order of business Crisps - special ones that had been sent to Rob.

I think the thing that most amazes me about Rob's campaign team is that its so young! Four of the seven people in the room were under 33, which by most Conservative Associations is very good, but I suspect is reflective of our new town demographics.

The advantages of this are that nothing is done "just because its the way it has always been done" which makes the team innovative and dynamic.

I am TIRED!

Today has been more tiring again. I think sleep deprivation may be catching up on me. The problem is that I already work full time in the NHS in a busy job, am Leader of Harlow council which is effectivly a second full time job and on top of that have been helping in the election campaign as much as possible in the few spare moments I do get. I sometimes wish we had 36 hour days, as I would be able to get more done!

So... can I look forward to good rest at the weekend? Of course not - weekends are the busiest times for election campaigners and not interrupted by work!

I have however been encouraged by the sheer number of volunteers that have descended to Harlow to help us try and win the General and Local elections. Thanks to all those people who are coming to Harlow to help out.

The election kicks into gear

If there are two things I can say about election campagins it is that they are fun and they are exhuasting.

Spent the evening after work delivering leaflets to Church Langley, the ward I represent, about the election being called and the good work Rob is doing in Harlow.

But it was all done in good humour with the team I was working with. Everyone is in good spirits.

Finally!

The general election has finally been called.

In many ways this is no surprise. We all knew it was coming and most people had been saying that it would be May 6th for quite a while now. I know all of that but it does not stop the slight butterflies in my stomach as we launch our general election campaign.

In Harlow there will of course be two elections as 11 council seats are up for grabs too.

So we are now electioneering again, and I can look forward to some very busy days and some very late nights. I hope that my wife (the other Cllr Johnson) will continue to be as understanding as always!