With New Year and the bad weather behind us, it is time to really up the pace and start knocking on doors. Last week I was canvassing in Budock Water. Today I was in Mawnan Smith and will be coming back again for the next three days solid to get around as many houses as possible.
We have a “meet the candidate” event coming up here on Friday week. Last Saturday, James (one of our hard working volunteers) and I came down and delivered most of the invites. We have a dozen or so such events in the next four weeks so it’s going to be a busy time.
The first door I knocked, the gentleman invited me in for a cup of tea. He actually said he was a lifelong Liberal Democrat, probably wouldn’t change but wouldn’t mind if I won and said it was good to see local candidates standing down here. Then I met another resident who said he wouldn’t usually vote Conservative but asked whether I was related to the late Eustice Benney. Eustice was a second cousin of mine and the Benneys have been a well known family in Mawnan Smith for generations.
I have been getting a good reaction here today. There is an overwhelming mood for change. Quite a few people pointed out that the local Lib Dems had just put out a leaflet claiming that they were going to scrap tuition fees on the very day that Nick Clegg abandoned the pledge – there was a strong feeling that the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.
But we have a lot more work ahead. I have worked out that I can cover about 700 houses a week if I organise my diary the right way. As the evenings get lighter we will be increasing that to cover as much of the constituency as possible.
