A terrific night for Conservatives

Posted by on Jun 8, 2009 in Euro election | 8 comments It was a terrific night for Conservative Euro candidates in the Eastern Region – as well as the United Kingdom – as voters gave Labour the bashing they were expecting. The result in our region remained unchanged with 3 Conservative, 2 UKIP, 1 Liberal Democrat and 1 Labour being re-elected. Our MEPs Geoffrey Van Orden and Robert Sturdy have been joined by newly elected Vicky Ford,...
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Vicky’s Election Day

Posted by on Jun 4, 2009 in Euro election | 8 comments By the time I caught up with our inspirational candidate Vicky Ford this morning, she had already visited two villages near her home to encourage as many voters as possible to get to the polls. Among the people she met was an elderly lady in her village who was very distressed about a mobility problem which made her a prisoner in her own home – and Vicky straight away picked up her phone to...
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The eve of the election

Posted by on Jun 3, 2009 in Euro election | 7 comments I was feeling half elated and half deflated at news of Gordon Brown’s Cabinet meltdown; my delight was measured by concern that it would alienate voters even more on the eve of the Euro and council elections. The mass resignations were surely a cunning plan on the part of Blears, Smith et al, knowing it would heap maximum humiliation on Brown. In a way, he is the Conservative’s best...
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Counting the minutes to E-Day

Posted by on Jun 3, 2009 in Euro election, updates | 3 comments Here is a video I made of the Shadow Minister for Europe Mark Francois talking about The Sun’s support for the Conservative Party for the first time in 12 years for tomorrow’s Euro Election. In the past, this kind of endorsement has been priceless for political parties, and we are hoping for the same tomorrow. Mark met up with our MEPs Geoffrey Van Orden and Robert Sturdy in Ipswich...
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Simon Heffer needs to go to charm classes

Posted by on Jun 2, 2009 in Euro election | 8 comments Please do read our Euro candidate Vicky  Ford’s very amusing post and find out why  Simon Heffer needs to go to charm classes. What a grump. Would you want to vote for him if he stands as an Independent candidate? Now our Vicky, a mum of three who got up at 5.30am to meet commuters at Chelmsford, after spending yesterday campaigning with her highly motivated team in Ipswich...
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Meeting the folks of Brussels Way

Posted by on Jun 2, 2009 in Euro election | 2 comments As you can imagine, trying to get the local media interested in writing about the Euro elections has been as easy as persuading Gordon Brown to audition for Britain’s Got Talent. But now and again journalists come up trumps with their creativity on this very dry – if not scandalous – subject. I was particularly impressed by the cracking idea and research carried out by BBC...
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A fact finding coastal erosion visit to North Norfolk

Posted by on May 23, 2009 in Environment, Euro election | 7 comments I joined Conservative Eastern Region Euro election candidates Vicky Ford and John Flack on a coastal erosion fact finding visit to Overstrand, Cromer yesterday. On this video, you will hear local campaigners from the Overstrand Shoreline Management Committee expressing their grave concerns and how they are considering a legal challenge under the Human Rights Act, as well the views of Vicky and...
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Political candidates are only human, you know

Posted by on May 20, 2009 in Euro election | 6 comments If there were 50 hours in the day, it still wouldn’t be enough for our Conservative European parliamentary candidates to visit everywhere and do everything they wanted covering the six counties in the East of England during the election campaign. To me, their daily programme seems exhaustive, but they do it because they are 110% committed to meeting as many people as possible. That is even...
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Why Esther shouldn’t stand in Luton

Posted by on May 19, 2009 in Euro election | 3 comments Our Vicky found herself unexpectedly rubbing shoulders with Esther Rantzen today at a school in Luton which she was visiting with Conservative Luton North parliamentary candidate Jeremy Brier. Esther is considering standing as a candidate in Luton South against disgraced expenses Labour MP Margaret Moran. So today she decided to find out what Luton was really like, accompanied by the media...
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Conservatives supporting the British horse racing industry

Posted by on May 19, 2009 in Euro election | 0 comments Like many other businesses today, the British horse racing industry is struggling from the recession. Living close to Newmarket, it is  something I enjoy from time to time with my family. I find the culture and varied backgrounds of its enthusiasts fascinating. I didn’t realise that 7,000 local jobs were dependent on this industry, so it was a very appropriate issue for Jeremy Hunt as...
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The changing European political agenda

Posted by on May 19, 2009 in Euro election | 4 comments One moment climate change, the economy and Lisbon Treaty were key issues for our European MPs and candidates, but now it is expenses. Yesterday this issue was also the focus of the launch of the Eastern Region Euro election campaign in Newmarket when they each signed a pledge promising greater transparency. Jeremy Hunt, Shadow Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport – he is such a great...
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The day of reckoning will come

Posted by on May 17, 2009 in Euro election | 11 comments With the British political scene in unprecedented turmoil – and yes, I would like to see an early general election so political associations and the electorate can decide who they can trust as their MP – I am delighted to say there is some good news on the political scene. I’m afraid it does not originate from this country, but from Kuwait, where for the first time ever women...
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David Willetts in Cambridgeshire

Posted by on May 11, 2009 in Euro election, Politics | 11 comments It was business as usual for David Willetts today when the Shadow Universities Secretary visited Cambridgeshire to support our Euro election candidate Vicky Ford, despite those newspaper headlines. They met the local principal of a college in Huntingdon who explained her difficulties to plan for redevelopment following the withdrawal of funding from the Learning and Skills Council. One of the...
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Why a UKIP vote is a wasted vote

Posted by on May 5, 2009 in Euro election | 14 comments Conservatives must beat UKIP before they beat Brown, says John Flack, one of our ace candidates in the Eastern Region Euro  Election. These are his reasons why: When UKIP asks you to “lend them your vote” at the Euro Election please, please, don’t be fooled again. Although their message may perhaps be understandably superficially attractive to many Conservatives, a vote for UKIP is...
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The highs and lows of football and politics

Posted by on May 4, 2009 in Euro election, Personal, Politics | 5 comments So once again I ask myself, “how on earth did the week fly by so quickly?” One minute I’m in Diss with our fragrant, choir singing Vicky Ford and Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow Secretary for International Development, visiting an Oxfam store as they share their voluntary experiences in Rwanda and kick start our Euro election campaigning, and the next moment I’m at a football...
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A week on the road

Posted by on Apr 25, 2009 in Euro election | 13 comments As you can imagine, I have had a busy week working on the Euro election, in fact I was in a different county in the Eastern region almost every day. Conservatives are feeling very positive and looking forward to the grassroots work in the constituency which MEPs and candidates will visit over the next six weeks. Here is a link of a video I made this week with our “cusp” candidate...
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Working on the Euro election

Posted by on Apr 19, 2009 in Euro election | 22 comments I have a very busy few weeks ahead of me as I am working on the Euro election as Conservative Press Officer for the Eastern Region. Getting media coverage will be particularly challenging because the regional press has been slashed with considerable redundancies and regard this subject as a bit of a turn-off anyway. During the last Euro election in 2004, Conservatives won three seats, but this...
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EP survey shows more women MEPs needed

Posted by on Mar 5, 2009 in Euro election | 10 comments Having written in the past about the dire shortage of women in British politics, I was fascinated to read the results of a European-based survey on this topic – and discover unsurprisingly that similar attitudes are shared on the continent. The survey of 35,000 women and 5,000 men in 27 countries revealed that politics is very much a male dominated world. The European Parliament...
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Euro election news coverage

Posted by on Feb 11, 2009 in Euro election | 2 comments It’s very challenging trying to persuade local newspapers to print stories about the important work of their MEPs. The best coverage in my patch, East Anglia, has come from the East Anglian Daily Times. Each week it has published a Letter from Brussels column written by each local MEP on a rotational basis. Now, unfortunately, it is coming to an end. An email I was sent this week blamed...
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