Introduction
I AM sure we all know that Gordon Brown will go to the Queen on tuesday april 6th and ask for the parliament to be dissolved. Parliament will sit until monday april 12th and then be dissolved as we head off for a General Election on May 6th.
We thought we would keep and publish a day to day diary as we travel the borough over the next 32 days in an election, which most pundits agree is just too close to call.
News of the World and Labour: Feel the Love in the Room.
We went to Prospects College in Basildon for the launch of the “Gene Hunt” poster with David Miliband, Ed Miliband and Angela Smith. We were in the queue to sign in behind Associate Editor of the News of the World, David Wooding. With Murdoch backing the Tories, he wasn’t going to get the easiest of rides and he didn’t. We think he was looking for an interview straight away and was told in no uncertain terms to wait. You have the feeling the election path is going to be..emotional.
The Miliband Bros: Thanks for the Namecheck
David and Ed breezed into the college. Security was understandably understated but assured. Their smart suits and open shirts hit the right tone as the assembled media of Sky, BBC, Channel 4 waited.
The advert was unveiled. We weren’t sure. The public tend to hate negative campaigning. There is a fine line and we felt that Labour didn’t need to respond to the Brown bashing. Some say it made Cameron look cool. Trouble with that is that it supposes that Mr Cameron is uncool to begin with
Labour have acknowledged that making sure the local media have their moment to interview the big hitters is important. In the last month, YourThurrock has interviewed Alastair Campbell, Bill Rammell, Neil Kinnock, John Healey, Hilary Benn, Shahid Malik and now David and Ed Miliband.
We got our four minutes. As YourThurrock’s representatives were Michael and Sally Casey we bonded over the “Bring the family to work day”.
We bowled a question about the eighties being a time of emancipation for the people of Essex. David Miliband hit back with how free people were with 15% interest rates.
More importantly, David Miliband looked at our logo and name checked: ” Ah…Local But Global….” and nodded approval. Thanks Foreign Secretary and yes, thanks Mrs Casey for having the camera running!
We left, impressed with the organisation of the Labour media army. Still not sure about the poster and we saw it as a gaffe but gaffe of the day as the news works so quickly. As we speak, Chris Grayling’s B and B “opinion” is dominating the news.
Tired
We then went down to Grays High Street where Thurrock’s Lib-Dem candidate Carys Davis was campaigning. Carys looked a little tired but she was not alone. Quite a few looked like they needed a couple of days off over this Easter weekend before the campaign starts in earnest. Once again, Carys has incredible enthusiasm and we predict that in 2020 she will be an MP somewhere in England.
It was interesting that Carys interpreted the number of senior Labour ministers as a sign that they were worried that the Tories could gain an overall majority as the polls have indicated this weekend.
