They Think It's All Over....They are sort of right - 04:20 pm, Mon 10th May 2010
The laws of political gravity held up. The Tories won SW Surrey with an incresed majority of 16,000 and 59% of the vote. All those people who thought that tactical voting might unseat Mr Hunt were proven wrong. It is just a shame that within the 17,000 Liberal votes there must have been some (perhaps many) which were switching from Labour with that purpose in mind. To the 3,419 people who did vote Labour: on behalf of the party, I am extremely grateful. Even though all must have known that they were unlikely to be voting in the next MP, they nevertheless were determined to make a positive statement of their preference for a party which had a commitment to delivering social justice.
The silver lining for our result is that the share of the vote to labour fell by only 2 percentage points - from 8% to 6% - which is of some comfort in the face of a 5.2% national swing. And the fact that Labour "core"vote is still there is also a plus, and I think that there will have been some first time voters in there as well.
So thanks again to everyone who voted, supported or even thought positively about Labour in SW Surrey. We are not going away as a national party and we will return to government in the near future, with a reinvigorated party and a renewed energy. It is going to be an interesting few months......
The Final 24 Hours..... - 10:36 pm, Wed 5th May 2010
Not even the welcome distraction of seeing Spurs clinch fourth place in the Premiership could take my mind off the polls. The latest batch tonight still show it as being incredibly tight, with Harris providing the only comfort of Labour as the single largest party. However, there is optimism to be found in the wider fact that it is truly amazing to see the margins as close as they are at this late stage, and if there are as many undecideds out there as we are told (my sister in law amongst them, sadly enough) then nothing at all about the final result can be imputed from these figures.
I will be heading over to Crawley tomorrow, where Labour is defending a 33 vote majority from 2005, as well as doing some final vote driving here in South West Surrey. And then it will be to Haslemere for the reckoning.
It's been a strange campaign. The TV debates have driven the polls to such a large extent that it is impossible to gauge what people think of our policies, but rather we can see what they think of all the leaders. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly has not helped us as much as the LIberals.
The final message on the phones and doorsteps tomorrow is simple. Labour is the party of social justice. We don't just parrot the words fairness and equality, we mean them. But we also know that social justice doesn't happen by accident. Left to its own devices society will not deliver fairness. So we need to fight for it. We need a government which will intervene to make it happen. We need to constantly work to achieve it. That is what a vote for Labour is all about: fighting for social justice, not sitting back and crossing our fingers.
Vote Labour on May 6th.
The Final Days - 11:02 pm, Mon 3rd May 2010
Do you remember those people at school who went around the days before the O level results came out, acting like they had 9 As in the bag? That is what Cameron reminds me of this weekend. It's such a convincing act that he even had Andrew Marr asking him what "will" you do as PM, not "would". Hubris is a wonderful thing but tonight's polls show further evidence of a narrowing gap. The caveats are there though: Bank Holiday polls are traditionally flaky apparently, and the marginal picture may be quite different. But, Labour have been the underdog throughout this Election, but we are still in there with a very realistic shout. If we can keep the energy and the drive up across the next two days, anything can still happen.
Someone responded to a message I sent on Facebook the other day saying that Labour had to be more positive. I think they are right. Whilst I fully endorse the need to warn voters of the horror that will be a Tory administration with a perceived mandate to cut through public services like a madman with a chainsaw, we also need to be clearer about how we will be different. We can acknowledge the need for cuts - indeed we must do - but there is nothing wrong with also outlining where we will continue to invest and more importantly why. So let's here more about the Green Growth Fund and the Hi Tech Investment fund, and the new Child Centres, and the National Care Service and the front-line policing. If we are clearer about the things we hold dear it will be a more reassuring and realistic message.
In the meantime, I've written to my Liberal opponent pointing out that a letter he has written in which he says I acknowledge that tactical voting could unseat the Tories is false - and possibly even in breach of the Representation of the People Act. I do acknowledge that some people think tactical voting could work, but I think those people are wrong, and I have never stated a belief to the contrary. He owes me an apology: what are the chances I will get one!?
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