Nine days to go until election day in Bury, and the Lib Dem campaign continues to gather momentum and support. Last night on the doorstep the groundswell of positive feeling was better even than last week, and for the first time during this campaign I survived a night without a single close encounter with a dog the size of a caravan.

It’s not a surprise to me that we’re doing OK when we meet local people. Nationally, Labour are imploding over a 10p tax rate abolition which makes the poorest poorer and which Lib Dems oppose. Lots of people are telling me that they’ll never vote Labour again. Lots more are saying that, for now, there’s no way they an believe a party who seem so out of touch and so willing to betray their traditional supporters for no apparent reason.

The Lib Dems nationally, and the Bury Lib Dems locally, present a real alternative. Locally, Labour are keen to escape their legacy of 21 years of neglect, their disgraceful attempts to close our local school, and their continuing plans to close local Post Offices. Lib Dems in Bury have been fighting for a fairer deal for residents for years. After we were the only party to fight the school closure, you elected Cllr Donal O’Hanlon to represent this war. As our work to improve local facilities and work with communities continued, you elected me last year to join Donal carry on the good work. And we’ve continued to work hard this year, with tangible success in Carr Clough, Rainsough, the Village, St Ann’s Road and right across the ward. So we’re asking you for your votes again so that Mary D’Albert can join us and become your third local Lib Dem councillor.

Assuming we aren’t all eaten one by one by angry dogs over the coming days, we’ll be out and about and anxious to meet as many local people as we can. If you want to get involved, just look out for us or get in touch using the Focus leaflets you’ll have been getting. Our community stands on the verge of a great change. In five years Prestwich Village will be unrecognisable to how it is today, as the regeneration and improvements take shape and transform the ward. I am proud to be a part of that, as is Donal, and as is Mary, elected or not. Join us and be a part of it too.

Rick

Further evidence that Labour face a massive rebellion from within their own ranks over the 10p tax rate abolition today, from one of the party’s own Parliamentary candidates. The decision to abolish the 10p rate will make many of the poorest working people in the country even less well off, and millions more ever more dependent on complicated tax credits and government handouts.

John Wiseman, the Labour candidate for Westmorland and Lonsdale, told a Labour website that he wanted Gordon Brown to “wake up and smell the coffee” over the tax rate abolition. As Labour across the country prepare for elections next week, Mr Wiseman admits to being “in the middle of a nightmare” over the controversial proposals which are angering people across the country.

I know from my own experiences on the doorstep over the past few weeks how people locally are increasingly disillusioned with Labour. Lib Dem supporters who are swayed by our local record of action to save schools, save post offices and get the streets cleaner, are telling me that they feel betrayed by a Labour party intent on making life even harder for the poorest who are already struggling with rising bills and more expensive mortgages. At a time when we look to government for help, they are abandoning us to bail out banks and cut taxes for the super-rich.

Mr Wiseman echoes what I’ve been hearing across the ward. “Everyone seems depressed” he said. ”Gordon has decided to take money away from his core vote. Junior Ministers are threatening to resign! When are we going to wake up? There are hundreds of councillors who are going to lose their seats if Gordon doesn’t listen.”

Mr Wiseman is right. Mr Brown isn’t listening. He is carrying on regardless, and on election day the people of St Mary’s have a straightforward choice. Do you risk your vote on a party that wanted to close Prestwich Arts College, wants to close our Post Office, and wants to make the poorest working people poorer and ever more dependent on the state? Or do you trust your vote to Mary D’Albert and the Lib Dems, with a proven local track record and a tax policy that is fairer, greener, and will take millions out of poverty?

Rick

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

I was disappointed this morning to hear an exchange on Radio Five Live about the decision of Angela Smith not to resign after all over the 10p tax rate cut. A listener texted in explaining that in his view the decision to stay in post came about as a result of Gordon Brown reminding Ms Smith about the “extra money, £180k mortgage expenses, and perks” of her job as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

The listener is entitled to his view, but Nicky Capbell (the presenter) didn’t challenge the complete factual inaccuracy of the text, and instead just read it sneeringly, thus adding to the growing tide of disrespect flowing towards parliamentarians and other politicians who are, on the whole, decent people regardless of party allegiance.

I have no idea why Ms Smith flip-flopped over resigning. I think the 10p tax rate abolition is disgraceful, and she clearly has reservations. But people blithely assuming that any decision made by an MP must be about personal greed rather than principle is annoying, and doubly so when it is accepted so casually by the mainstream media. Maybe she just changed her mind, like people do.

PPSs don’t get paid, so deciding not to resign actually means more work for no more money at all. In addition, this whole issue of expenses is blown ludicrously out of proportion in my view. Out of the 600+ MPs, of course there will be one or two who take more than they should. Derek Conway’s conduct was neck-deep in the immoral and probably bordered on the criminal. He has brought politicians into disrepute, but the disrepute that has been brought to them is way out of proportion to the reality.

Of course all of our MPs are in the public eye and should be held to a higher standard than those not paid from the public purse. But the reason expenses claims seem so high isn’t because MPs are on the take, but because they need somewhere to live, and they need to furnish it, and they need to staff an office to do their job, and they need to travel up and down the country, and they need to eat away from home, and they need to try and not let their families disintegrate through distance, as well as actually having to do a job for which the weight of expectation can never be met. And I bet every penny in my pockets that the vast majority of them got into it for the right reasons - wanting to bring about a positive change, wanting to follow their beliefs, and wanting to make a difference to people’s lives.

If MPs only got into politics for the money and the perks, they made a very poor choice. They should’ve become lawyers or bankers instead. A lot more money for a lot less hassle. I reckon that David Cameron is way down the list of top earners compared to his chums from Eton and Oxford. And of the 600+ MPs, a dozen or so might get a car and a driver in exchange for working 100 hour weeks, but the rest probably lead fairly miserable lives spent mostly on trains and in lonely flats.

On the doorstep in the campaign I am staggered by how poor the regard for politicians and politics in general is. There’s a tired government, battling a weakening economy, and for the first time ever in this country those two factors are being scrutinised by a 24 hour news media and an internet which stretches into every nook and cranny of everyone’s lives. And the Tory opposition is gaining ground less because of its wide array of groundbreaking policies (which doesn’t exist) but more because of a vague desire for “change” caused by being “sick of that Labour lot.” It’s so sad to hear on the doorstep that someone is voting Tory rather than Labour, but doing so in the strident belief that the Tories will do no better.

I long for some positivity in the media, because obviously it is the media which drives the agenda and forms the opinions. MPs of all parties make wonderful speeches, come up with great ideas, and set them forth only for the front pages the next day to be dominated by the one dissenting voice. Of course all sides should have their say, but let’s have fairness with it and shine a light on the positives.

Maybe tonight, and over the weekend, sentiment may change. And don’t get me wrong, the people who are nice on the doorstep, of all political allegiances, still outweigh the ones who aren’t. But I much prefer someone to say “Yes! I’m voting Lib Dem!” than hearing them say “I’m sick of Labour so I’ll give you people a shout this time.” And at the moment, I’m hearing lots of the latter as well as lots of the former.

Rick

I am tired today. I wonder how the candidates for the American Presidential race manage to be in campaign mode for up to two years (followed by then being President, which is no cake walk!) without expiring after the first couple of months. Local elections in Bury are harder than I thought from the outside years ago, despite all the support we’re getting from local people!

At least the weather is less threatening today. Yesterday’s promise of sleet didn’t materialise, although my hands didn’t like being out in the cold one little bit last night. Who knows what tonight may bring though? I just went outside to buy some lunch, and was almost blown down the street by gale force winds. Mother Nature has no appreciation for the finer points of electioneering, clearly.

Rick

Tonight I am back on the campaign trail, and it will be nice to be back and taking the opportunity to meet more local people. I particularly enjoy knocking on the houses of people I met last year, and receiving just as warm a reception now as then.

Afterwards I am meeting a constituent to discuss a school admission issue which I am keen to get to the bottom of. I know how lots of local people get very stressed trying to get their children into good schools, and whilst we all want every school to be as good as the next, it is important that the admissions system is as open and transparent as possible in the meantime. So I am going to find out a bit more about this person’s problem.

Also today I am chasing up a housing issue. Many local people will be aware of the current works in Rainsough and Carr Clough being undertaken to renovate the roofs of the Council houses there. A resident who owns his own home rang me last night to discuss the issue of repairs to a chimney stack that is jointly his and his tenant-neighbour.

So the casework doesn’t stop as the campaign goes on, and of course our St Mary’s candidate Mary D’Albert, and me, and the rest of the Prestwich Lib Dems are more than happy to assist with anything at this time of year.

Rick

Tonight I am taking the evening off canvassing to attend a work function, which ironically is at Bury Town Hall. A few years ago the thought of spending a worknight anywhere but slumped in front of the TV or out with my friends would have had me harrumphing my way through the evening in a gale of indignant unhappiness. Now of course the Town Hall is like my second home, so I don’t mind at all. And there’s probably the chance to recoup some time owing in lieu. So that’s a double bonus.

Despite my frequent delusions of grandeur, colleagues in the party assure me that my absence tonight won’t have the campaign grinding to a temporary halt. So the leafleting and canvassing will continue this evening, and you may get the opportunity to meet Mary D’Albert, the Lib Dem Focus Team candidate for St Mary’s ward in the May 1st election.

Today I have started thinking about my birthday, which looms like a an ominous shadow in an otherwise blue sky. I would gladly mark the occasion with nothing more than a private wailing ceremony, shaking my fists skywards from the top of an isolated hill and loudly demanding my youth back off a clearly vengeful God. Unfortunately, both Tamsin and social convention dictate that I have do something more “sociable,” and thus I have been pondering restaurant opportunities, with the idea being that I invite a couple of my closest friends, leave the ones on the fringes to their Saturday nights in peace, and grab a quick bite before heading home to old age and death.

These days I’m glad that my birthday can pass without being force-fed garish-coloured alcopops in a hideous neon-universe of bars and clubs until I succumb to an alcoholic coma. But even though I am more willing than I once was, there’s still this nagging doubt I have in my mind that, as well as being a celebration of the desperately unwanted passage of time, none of my mates really want to spend their money on celebrating the fact that many years ago I popped into the world on an arbitrary date that coincides with today.

So I try to make the event a bit more special than normal by finding the most ridiculous restaurants in Manchester to go to. So that people can get so flummoxed by the menu that they ignore me, and I can kid myself that they’re all out to experience something bizarre and cultural, rather than stare grimly at me whilst I unwrap cards and they simmer with resentment at missing Dr Who.

I am torn between the Lebanese one in the Northern Quarter, and the new Russian one on Sackville Street. I must say I’m hedging towards Russian. Not just because it’s bigger and thus less likely to chuckle knowingly when I try to reserve a table, but also because it isn’t in the “Northern Quarter,” a name and an area so laughably pretentious that it makes me want to vomit my spleen out onto the ripped jeans of every hair-gelled whining label serf I pass there.

If anyone’s been to either, let me have the recommendations please. I reckon I’ll book on Wednesday…

Have a nice day.

Rick

The campaign for the Local Elections on May 1st is now getting into full swing, and last night was another enjoyable evening of canvassing on behalf of the St Mary’s ward Lib Dem candidate Mary D’Albert.

Because there’s quite a few of us, and because lots of people are out (or just see us coming and don’t answer the door…), I only reckon I get to speak to someone every dozen houses or so. But it’s nice on occasion to meet someone who I’ve spoken to on the phone or helped with casework over email in the last year. That happened a couple of times last night, and it was great to be able to put a name to the faces of people who’ve been ringing me over the months.

Last night’s score on the Angry Local Dog Maul-o-meter, was a paltry 1. And it was less of a mauling than an inquisitive nose to the knee from an exuberant golden retriever. I did trip up some steps at one point though.

Overall I was again delighted with the response we’re getting on the doorstep. People are keen to meet Mary, and supportive of the work we’ve all been doing across the ward in the past. Who knows what tonight will bring?

 Rick