Richard Baum

I have delivered a frankly obscene amount of leaflets this weekend - so many in fact that my hands have taken on a yellow and black tinge from the ink, and at one point during the rain earlier the entire contents of St Mary’s Focus transposed themselves onto my skin due to running ink. However, I am grateful for the fact that we live in an age of water running from taps, because it allows me to wash it off and not be cursed to wander around forever more with a mirror image of “Don’t forget that Labour tried to close our local school” on my palm. Not that anyone should forget of course, because it is a very salient point at the present time. I just don’t want them remembering by grabbing my hand and reading it in the mirror.

I am not alone of course in passing my own body weight in leaflets through the various letterboxes of Bury these past days. Our cohort of willing Lib Dem volunteers is equally responsible, as the sky high pile diminishes slowly as time passes. My Dad was also up this weekend to help out, and now understands quite clearly why the seemingly simple task of “leafleting” is rendered difficult by the fact that there are 15,000 of them and only one of me.

There’s only 11 days to go now until the big day - a week on Thursday, the 1st May. Mary D’Albert, our candidate for St Mary’s ward, has been even more busy than I have been, with leafleting and canvassing coming on top of meeting lots of local people keen to talk to her. As someone who has lived in this area for a very long time, unlike the Labour Party candidate, Mary is well aware of the history and values of the local community. Mary knows how much we value local facilities like our school and our Post Office, whereas it seems that Labour are now only too happy to see local Post Offices fall by the wayside just as they wanted to close Prestwich Arts College. It’s all in the name of profitability and “efficiency,” but, as the current Labour implosion over the 10p tax rate abolition clearly shows, Labour know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

The Lib Dem record locally speaks for itself. As well as being the only party to fight the disgraceful school closure plan in Prestwich, we’re also the only party who have been opposed to congestion charging all along. The only party who have secured more funding for street cleaning (including Saturday sweeping) in Prestwich, and the only party who have made progress on the Village redevelopment after two decades of Labour sitting on their thumbs and doing little for Prestwich.

Don’t be fooled by Labour lies. Their latest letter being put out in the ward once again spreads unfathomable lies that smack of utter desperation rather than honest policies. The party of “education, education, education” tried to close Prestwich Arts College. The “party of the working poor” now has policies to make them poorer still. And the party that claims to stick up for families now wants to close the family post office. How can we believe anything they say any more? We promised to stick up for local communities - and that’s what we’ve done. And we’ll continue to do so with Mary D’Albert as your local Councillor.

Rick