THE FINAL DAY OF THE CAMPAIGN

It doesn't seem that long ago that I wrote the number 52 on my calendar next to Monday 11th March, then 51 on the 12th etc. etc.  The long countdown to the election on 2nd May.  The weather was totally different - freezing cold winds, snow showers, hail storms whereas these last few days have been gloriously sunny - but the time has certainly flowed by VERY QUICKLY.  Certainly my wife will be glad when its all over, any leaflets remaining put in the recycling and the dining room back to normal.

Since I last posted on here I've produced a second leaflet - a two sided black and white A4.  Not the glossy affair that arrived from the Lib Dems (after a little persuasion from my wife we got a copy!) but with, I hope, an effective message.  I'm very aware that the "squeezed middle" are the ones most suffering from the austerity aftermath of Labour's years of binge spending.  Inflation continues but wages and salaries are in many cases are just not keeping pace.  That's why I wholeheartedly support the decision to freeze council tax for four years.  It won't be easy to do and there will be some difficult choices to make over that period but it is the right approach.  I think most politicians don't really get how unpopular council tax is - unlike income tax and NI it isn't subtly taken from your pay before you see it, but is right there every month on your bank statement, teasingly staying in your account from payday until the 15th then whisked away by 'DD'.

My leaflet also sets out my local connections in an election where two candidates live some distance away - in Stowmarket and Debenham.  My only reason for standing is to represent my neighbours and my community - what is their motivation I wonder in parachuting into the Gipping Valley?

There's work still to be done today to reach out to voters who haven't yet received my second leaflet.  In a perfect world all those leaflets would have gone out yesterday and today as an "eve of poll" leaflet but the reality, with over 3,000 homes in the Division, is that it is at least a full week job.

I'll post again on Friday when all the ballot papers have been counted.  In an election where the Conservatives are expected to lose seats not gain them, I can only grasp on the thinnest strand of hope.  But for today and tomorrow at least, there remains hope.