Smiles of the Cheshire cat
If you have not won a by-election against Labour for 30 years, and it is not remotely historic Tory territory, you would – as a Conservative – be somewhat cautious.
Arriving early yesterday at one of the Conservative campaign offices in Crewe, Mark Fox and I bump into Lembit Opik MP who looks really pleased to see us. That cannot be said of the Liberal Democrat candidate he is with. We set off canvassing in an area with a high proportion of retirees, in neat bungalows. It soon becomes evident the extent of the disaffection with Labour – it jumps out at you, time and time again. We see Messrs Byers and Alan Milburn out on the doorstep and wonder if they also – for very different reasons – are pleased too.
Feeling very cheerful we lunch at Les’s for fish and chips, and it is delicious fodder. When we return to the office we are invaded by the UKIP leader Nigel Farage and their candidate. I ask him how much a deposit costs. He laughs. Our Tory national treasure Eric Pickles appears, love bombing Labour to great effect. A number of us scuttle back to London to vote in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.
I do not know what will exactly happen on Thursday, but something akin to a political cyclone is in the Cheshire air, at least on the basis of our canvassing. The Labour campaign to brand the Tory candidate as some sort of extra terrestrial toff is so amateurish and irrelevant, it is simply laughable. If this is the best they can do, they really have lost it. They clearly have nothing else to say.
In many years of canvassing, I have never had a more cheerful doorstep experience. Roll on Thursday.