ROSALYN HARPER, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT, SURREY HEATH

Rosalyn Harper is the Lib Dem candidate for Surrey Heath. Rosalyn has been campaigning for over two years on local issues such as trying to save local post offices, installing CCTV and scrapping the council tax.
Full biography

Friday, May 6

I have just returned from the County Council count having had hardly any sleep in the last 60 hours. I have to say that on the one hand I am disappointed and on the other I am exceedingly excited for the future of the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats have just made their best showing in 80 years - Jo, Jenny, Danny, Lynne, Jeremy, Julia, Tim, Lorely, Chris, Susan, Dan, Nick and Greg who I know personally will make excellent MPs, as will all the other new Lib Dem MPs and their success has certainly made up for the disappointments here in the South East.

In Surrey Heath, my campaign team have worked extremely hard and we gained an extra 3000 votes and have knocked Labour backed well into third which means that we are definitely the only alternative here. However, the Tories also gained ground from Labour and the majority hasn’t moved much.

It was such a long night after having spent all the day running around from polling station to polling station and knocking on lots of doors. My mother was a star running round with the rest of the team and how she stayed up until the early hours I’ll never know as she prefers early mornings to late nights. My friend Kathie joined us later which was great and helped to keep me awake whilst we waited for the result. The length of time it took to verify and count the general election was ridiculous and very badly organised. We didn’t start actually counting until 2.30am! Results came in about 4.30am which was a bit of a surprise as I was in the bathroom at the time and had had no warning! We had more hope for the county council elections today and were very close in two of the divisions but as they say not close enough.

We will pick this up, we have the Borough Council Elections in 2 years to look forward to and I know we will do well there and I am intending to work this constituency until we win it!

I really want to thank all my team from my agent, to the County Council Candidates to all of those in the campaign team who supported over the last two and a half years. Plus, I can’t forget my many friends and family who came down to help. They all helped me to have something to say in this blog which I hope you’ve enjoyed reading. All I have left to say is watch this space!

Wednesday, May 4

I’m writing this as I run out of the door early on Election Day. We walked until we literally could walk no further yesterday. The whole team did themselves proud and we got out everything we intended to and a little more. Thank goodness for home-made food. Mum’s shepherd’s pie last night was just what I needed. I tried to finish off contacting all the voters who had asked questions but my ntlworld email account failed last night - just what I needed before the big day. My brother Richard also turned up ready to go Thursday morning. I am now trying to get in touch with as many people as I can.

My texting finger has also nearly fallen off wishing people good luck and responding to those who have got in touch with me which is great. I had a call from my dad who is in Norwich South and apparently that is looking good so far. Fingers Crossed for all the Lib Dem candidates across the UK - what ever happens tonight the Lib Dems have entered the day on the best polls ever and we will have more seats by the end of the night. I just can’t wait to see how many!

Tuesday, May 3

It’s getting very close now, so all of our effort is in getting leaflets out to those we hope will vote for us and more posters out to convince those who haven’t made up their minds yet. We have people out all of the time now running around, never enough but we manage to get it done anyway!

The only event to happen today was a hustings organised by Mytchett Baptist Church. It was at short notice but surprisingly there were a number of people who attended. Some very long winded questions, some were even longer than the responses. Issues covered were Farnborough Airport, Europe, unfair Council Tax, fair trade and local planning and development concerns. On the latter, the Tory candidate had attacked me in literature for considering development of 28,000 houses across the south east by 2026 (over 20 years) although they implied it was just Surrey Heath! I’m glad it was brought up on the night as not only did the Liberal Democrat councillors concede to this target, so did all 22 Conservative councillors!!!! I’m lucky to work with such a good team of councillors and we all work together. What was more interesting though was the Labour candidate obviously conceding defeat by complimenting the Tory candidate - well it is quite difficult to tell the difference between the two parties these days! We must be doing our job well if we have them worried!

Monday, May 2

After dropping my friend off at Woking train station, most of the day was spent at the Chobham Carnival. We have regularly had a Bottle tombola at this event, but this time Cllr John Faulkner and I also handed out black and yellow lib dem balloons. It was a fantastic day and very worthwhile. I met people there from all over the constituency; they raised issues from hunting, to CCTV, clean hospitals and schools. Many people just popped over to wish us good luck, which was much appreciated. Whilst we were talking, Judy, Bob, Lindsey and Mum were tirelessly blowing up balloons, or serving customers (very useful task considering the cost of the campaign we are currently running!). My friend Caz also popped by with her son Thomas (wearing his “I’m backing Rosalyn Harper” stickers) he was very excited by all the rides as were most of the other children and I was very impressed when she told me she’d cycled – I hope its down hill on the way home. When I finally had time, it was great wandering around the stalls and meeting people who had given up their time to raise money for worthwhile organisations such as the local scout and playgroups.

Once I had managed to catch the sun just enough for it to clash with my red suit, I set off to join Cllr Duncan Clark and Cllr David Whitcroft canvassing in Deepcut. I was surprised at how many people were in as I must admit I didn’t expect it. While I was here my mum had been off delivering and as it turned out canvassing to. When I joined her I was sent to visit a lady who had questions for the candidate. I left having all four votes in the household and a poster in the window!!!

The rest of the night was spent trailing through the numerous emails I have received from voters. I hope I can get through all of them before Wednesday night

Sunday, May 1

My mother as usual was out at the crack of dawn for her first delivery while I made the most of an extra hour in bed. Not long to go yet and definitely finding that adrenalin is taking over to keep me going. Although, on finding a bumper pack of batteries my best friend is convinced that that is what is keeping me going!!!

We were joined today by my friend Dave who I’d managed to convince to come down again and it was a nice surprise to see my sister, Daisy who was able to pop in for a few hours. She’d wanted to come down before but as she’s in her final year at Winchester and had the small matter of finishing her dissertation amongst other things to do. By complete coincidence her boyfriend, James’ family live in Frimley and they had come down together for his birthday.

It was another really hot day, at lunch we were able to sit outside, although we ended up fighting off a wasp that was convinced our food was rather tasty! I also got a call from my friend Horace in Australia to see how the campaign was going and to check I was still standing.

There can’t be any roads or streets left in Surrey Heath that I haven’t delivered or at least that’s what my feet felt like today. We had loads of people out but there was still always one more delivery. In the end we had to stop as there was training in the evening for those who were going to be at the count. It’s a very specialist task trying to keep account of how the vote is going to see whether we are going to win or not. Even more so because by that time most people are exhausted!

I popped into my friend Abby’s Birthday Bar BQ later on. It was nice to meet a number of new faces but I couldn’t stay long as it was very difficulty to keep my eyes open and I had loads of emails to get back to!

Saturday, April 31

My best friend and I headed over to today’s HQ which was a flurry of activity - bags of deliveries scattered all over the floor ready to go out. Only six days to go and the election suddenly seemed a bit closer. Once my friend Jo had arrived from London again we went to Camberley Town Centre where we were again handing out leaflets and balloons and asking people to sign our Axe the Tax petition. It was great that a number of people had been reading our latest leaflets, including those from the Old Dean where we were on Thursday. We had a number of rather enthusiastic teenagers keen to have our balloons - something we would normally be very happy to do, but we realised quite quickly that it was the helium rather than the balloons there were interested in! So balloon production conveniently went on strike for a while!

At lunch, we were informed of our first official casualty. Keith who is the engine machine behind our delivery Hit Squad was caught off guard by a “silent” dog that lay in weight behind a letter box to sink its teeth into any sign of flesh that came through the door. Unfortunately for Keith, that happened to be one of his finger's which now has a large hole in it. Thankfully, Frimley Park Hospital A&E dealt with him very quickly. However, what was disappointing was that although Keith’s cry in pain was heard by another deliverer a street away, the owners of the dog didn’t even open the door to check if he was ok.

After lunch, which thanks to Sheena again was a massive spread feeding the many troops who’d been through the doors that day, we headed off delivering. The weather was glorious and we walked our socks off in the sun stopping only for an ice lolly and to pick up my mother who was coming down to help for the final week and even then I had her out delivering straight away (well her train had been delayed getting into Brookwood so she needed to stretch her legs!). Actually her train fare was another bone of contention. When she comes down for the weekend she is able to buy a 5 day return all the way from North East Essex to Brookwood but because she is staying for 6 days she had to buy a single to London, a single tube fare to Waterloo and then queue to get a single to Brookwood. This is ridiculous and they wonder why fewer people are using the trains - we should be encouraging people to use public transport not hindering. This is a symptom of the Tories privatisation of the railways and Labour haven’t made it any better.

We rounded off the night, our feet no longer willing to walk any further with Chinese and Dr. Who again to see a welcome return to the Daleks!

Friday, April 30

Started today with yet more admin - I am prioritising those who are voters in Surrey Heath who have asked specific questions and those who have contacted me to say they may be unable to vote but wanted to.

My answer machine is continually filling up with people who have asked for postal votes and have still not received one even though it’s a bank holiday weekend and many people are going on holiday. This fiasco prevents people from voting and I think it’s outrageous that a system set up to aid people to vote is preventing them from doing so because of bad management. For instance, yesterday I received someone else’s postal vote because the ballot paper had been inserted in front of the addressed letter in a window envelope, with my address showing! I obviously took the ballot straight to the returning officer but it worries me I was put in that position especially when there are so many worries about postal voter fraud.

Around lunchtime I headed over to West End Community Centre to meet people at their day centre. Older people from West End and Chobham in particular came together for a few hours and enjoyed a nice lunch together. There were about 25-30 people there and rather than give a speech I spent time sitting down with them and giving them the opportunity to ask me questions. It worked really well I was there for nearly an hour and had a chance to speak to most of them. Many of whom were strong supporters of our pensions, free personal care and local income tax policies.

My stomach was rumbling by the time I left because I hadn’t been able to eat for 3 hours as my next visit was to Lloyds Pharmacy in Chobham, after a walkabout on Chobham high street. I was there to highlight their in-store diabetes testing for customers and took a test. As my uncle has worked for Boots all his life I did feel as though I was in enemy territory, however, all of the chemists appear to be co-operating to ensure that their new services are available equally to people across a primary care trust area. The pharmacist here also genuinely took time to talk to their customers and get to know them.

To round off the day I joined a canvassing team in Heatherside and then back to central HQ to assist with the final target letters.

Thursday, April 28

Typical start to the day, missed press conference as it had been moved due to the release of the Attorney General’s advice. Then, my shower was disturbed by a loud knocking at my door, so I had to drip downstairs to be presented with a massive bunch of flowers! My best friend had thoughtfully arranged for a bunch (in appropriate colours yellow and orange! Not a red or blue flower in sight!) to wish me good luck, which was fab!

Cllr John Faulkner and I attended the Chobham WI market and met a number of the stall holders and local residents. I bought some lemon curd, which has gone down a treat – John bought a lemon drizzle cake – I’d love to tell you what that tasted like but it was gone before I had a chance!

Lunchtime was a bit more taxing. Collingwood College had arranged a question time at their Sixth Form. It was really nice to arrive and meet Omar and Tom again and Nick who was head boy. I found out whilst I had been chatting to the students, the other two candidates had been sitting in an office! There was some confusion over whether we would be making a speech, so I had quickly put one together beforehand which meant I had to read it which wasn’t great but the best I could do. Once it got going (thanks to Nick kicking things off by asking the Labour Candidate how he can expect people to trust their promises) there were some very pertinent questions – especially in relation to taxation and the economy, plus also third world debt and Iraq. There were about 80-100 people there, I hope they found it useful. Plus, I was rather pleased I got in that only I could beat the Conservatives and that Labour was a wasted vote! We then went on another tour of the 6th Form before we left.

That evening, I visited Camberley Fire Station and sat down with Red Watch for a cup of tea (non breakable mugs… Apparently they can be trusted to save lives but not cope with breakable mugs!) Most peoples understanding of fire-fighters either comes from direct contact, London’s Burning or the media coverage of the strikes. I was interested to hear their views on “modernisation” and any issues they had in relation to the changes. What struck me was that most of them lived outside the area, some as far away as Somerset because it’s too expensive to live here and even so were not classed as key workers. Issues which came up were the change in their pension scheme which had been one of the benefits of the job and was now being eroded; the proposed new schemes of work for instance being out in town doing safety checks on Friday and Saturday nights to add more uniformed presence, carrying a defibrillator on board when they only have basic first aid training experience. It seemed to me that it was a lack of support and training to assist them to take on these new roles rather than an aversion to change. As with many things, consultation with the troops on the ground would be nice. With just a little consideration in respect of their working environment – i.e. better decoration and perhaps a cleaner, they would be much happier in the job which they consider to be a vocation rather than “just a job”.

Lastly, I joined my troops on the Old Dean behind the fire station to meet locals and deliver leaflets. We covered a lot of ground which was great.

Unfortunately, I am still suffering from my cold which is why this diary has been coming out in dribs and drabs for the last few days.

Wednesday, April 27

I had an early visit today at Camberley Infant School so that I could attend their “Celebration” assembly. They hold it once a week to celebrate pupil’s birthdays and special achievements, parents are also encouraged to attend. It reminded me of my primary school teacher who’d presented our class with certificates for “furniture removal” as our school was being renovated and we had to move our classroom into the school hall on a regular basis (I’ve still got it somewhere!). A small group also showed off their rugby trophies, so who knows I might have witnessed a future Jonny Wilkinson.

Emma Reeves, the Head was really informative and it was also nice to see a familiar face too, Bob who I had met on a number of occasions was chair of the governors plus all of his family at some point had gone to the school – we met one or two of his grandchildren as we wondered around. The one thing that struck me about the outside of the school was that they had gone to such lengths to ensure it had a garden feel to it and that they utilised it as much as possible with outdoor activities for all the classes. One of their main concerns here was the lack of admin space and the fact that not all the staff could sit down at once in the staff room (this was a recurring issue at a number of the schools I have visited) – this makes it difficult for the staff to have a proper break during the day and for staff meetings.

I went straight from here to Frimley Primary School where I met with Mike Pearce we grabbed a coffee in the staff room and discussed various issues including balancing budgets now that you need extra staff to cover the 10% non contact time. Great idea but no extra funding to cover the expense plus also the concern of staff that whomever is looking after their class in their absence is keeping the standards up.

I had a lots of admin to catch up in the afternoon – I am still trailing through the piles of questionnaires I have been sent. I’m worried I won’t have time to send them out before the election, but I am trying.

I went canvassing with Cllr Duncan Clark and team in Mytchett, which went quite well. We found the Labour vote very soft, our message was definitely getting though and at one door I was spotted by their little girl who’d remembered me from when I visited her school. I also popped in to say thank you to a lady who had put up a poster board on a main road.

I went to our main HQ to join those who were still stuffing our latest target letters – it was nice to see a few faces that weren’t normally there. I didn’t stay long as all those rain showers had taken its toll and I had a stinking cold so I went home to wrap up and feel sorry for myself!

Tuesday April 26

This morning got off to a good start with the announcement that Brian Sedgemore, the former Labour MP had joined the Lib Dems. I do, however, think that most of the media broadcasts during the day didn’t focus on his real concern that the Labour Government were eroding civil liberties, in particular the introduction of ID cards and trial by jury.

Forgot to say yesterday for any of you who were concerned about the holes in my shoes, that I picked up two pairs from a cobbler in Frimley Green having survived his justifiable disdain when I took them in to be fixed, so I am now fit again to tread the campaign path!

I visited one of the local Citizens Advice Bureau’s today based in Frimley which is attached and receives funding from the local PCT (primary care trust).  Once I got over the fact I had to go up rather steep stairs (I’m not too fond of heights!) I had a very worthwhile meeting. They look out for the needs of those who are ill and therefore their job is a little bit more proactive than most. The main issues which arise relate to benefits, housing and debt and I have a lot of respect for those who are able to deal with this in a very sensitive way.

After I’d had pizza with the troops, I went along to the Mother & Toddler group at the Heatherside Community Centre. They are quite lucky with the space there as it gave the children loads of room to play in and they were a really nice group. We chatted about a number of things from immunisations to other activities for toddlers, infant schools and the local shopping arcade, which also meant the issue of CCTV came up again. 

Collingwood College which I visited last week is also running Mock Elections. I’d been contacted by the Lib Dem team for information and I thought it would be a good idea to invite them over so I could meet them, give them some background and they would also be able to see how our campaign worked. Omar, the candidate and Tom arrived and we discussed issues and tactics, plus they also very kindly helped stick a few leaflets while they were there! 

We had Mock Elections at my 6th Form College back in 1992 that was when I decided I was a Lib Dem and look what happened to me! So who knows where Omar and Tom may end up!

Last note – for once last night we managed to avoid the torrential downpour (we much have done something nice during the day) – however we did witness 3 drowned suits on a dark road and we think the conservatives got caught out this time!

Monday, April 25

Survived yet another torrential downpour to go to Lightwater Village School (at least it cleaned my car!!) I spent quite a while discussing issues with the Head, Diane Moffat, including the welcome support the school receives from their parents and the successful way they work together.

Next, I was joined by Tony Cowell at Collingwood Grange Bupa Nursing home where I spoke to them about myself and what I had to offer them as their future MP plus a few of our policies which I thought would be of interest to them; free personal care, scrapping the council tax and increasing pensions by £100 a month for the over 75’s and the proposed citizens pension bringing equality for women’s pensions. Until earlier this year, I hadn’t realised that women were penalised for staying at home to look after their children and I was outraged. I am glad we have a policy that rectifies this. It was difficult to tell during the question and answer session how supportive they were by their reactions. However, I was glad that we took the time afterwards to speak to the staff as it enabled us to speak individually to those had been in the room with us as they went to lunch and they were very happy to express their opinions on a one to one basis and they were quite positive.

After grabbing a bacon sandwich, I went to The Grove Primary School, it was nice to meet the Head, Brenda Brown who took time to show me around. I was interested in the way that they use practical exercises to teach pupils in particular One World Week where classrooms became different countries organised by the teachers and the children created passports which were stamped when they visited the countries to find out more about them.

Last stop for the day was to Cross Farm Infant School, where I met Mrs Tarracott who was retiring as Head at the end of the term and it was fascinating to hear her views over years of teaching and the changes that had been made – those who had worked and those who hadn’t. Interestingly at a recent conference she heard Tomlinson give his report and was very encouraged by his views – what a shame they were dismissed to out of hand by Labour’s Ruth Kelly who’d only been in her new job a few weeks.

Yet more folding and labelling was going on in the evening and it gave me the opportunity to drop in on my friend Caz and her three-year-old son Thomas as they were going to help out which was great. I left Thomas waving from the window wearing one of my luminous orange “I’m backing Rosalyn Harper” stickers!

I had an email from my friend Serena Tierney who is the Lib Dem candidate in Mid Sussex. I gather their campaign is going well, which is not surprising as she obviously values time spent with her constituents unlike the current Tory MP Nicholas Soames who left almost as soon as he’d arrived at the Sackville School Mock Election hustings! One campaign story I couldn’t resist repeating, A shaggy dog story (but true) - a lady ran after a deliverer in Haywards Heath with her dog by her side (this would usually put fear into a deliverer!) - she said "I think my dog wants to join the Liberal Democrats, he has just picked your leaflet up from the mat and brought it to me - he has never done anything like that before! If only they were all like that!

Sunday, April 24

Unfortunately, this morning got off to a sad start as my father rang to say that my Nanna's sister, Auntie Vera had died today. She’d died of stomach cancer which none of us had been aware of until very recently.

Linda and Kerry headed off to the HQ without me as I had a number emails to deal with before I headed over there, where my brother and friend Sarah joined them. It was good of them to pop down again especially as Sarah is in the middle of training to be a teacher and Rich's fitting me in between band practice (although I should count myself lucky they are without a drum kit at the MO!).

We had the usual ever increasing team out delivering, although they are obviously getting fitter as the campaign moves on, as they are getting them out quicker and quicker! One of my friends obviously caught the bug as not content with delivering her own walk got rather carried away and delivered our other deliverers walks – thankfully they spotted it before they delivered it twice.

We are still knee deep in target letters and election addresses, we are getting through them and thankfully we have loads of people volunteering to help but as the deadline for delivery is this Wednesday we have tons to get through and I can see the next few days will be manic.

It looks like the issue of the legality of the war in Iraq is finally going to raise its head, having just read about the report in the Mail on Sunday, which said a leaked memo showed Attorney General Lord Goldsmith had given six reasons why action might not be legal. As a lawyer I have always been concerned about the substance of the evidence which took us to war and the fact that the Cabinet didn’t receive the legal advice in its entirety in order for them to make a balanced judgement.

Saturday, April 23

I drove over to our Central HQ, I was rather disappointed that the weather wasn’t looking great but by the time I walked through the front door I was feeling fab! All my friends from outside the area had converged on the HQ at once and I walked in flanked by five friends which was also great for team moral for those already inside. Didn’t stop it raining though!

We had to re-arrange our plans so it was actually quite fun with loads of us preparing yet more target letters (folding, stuffing and labelling etc). We had a few brave (or mad) individuals (Keith and Geoff!) who continued delivering, the rest of us I admit staying the dry until the rain had passed. After a fab lunch we all needed to walk it off, so I and the troops, who included a Kathie & Jo who’d already been down to help this campaign, Chris who managed to find the time in his busy schedule (he’s a solicitor and works very long hours) so it was great to see him. A new friend Bethany and Kerry trudged out on the streets and between us we blanketed a rather large area. What was fun while we were out was that due to the make up of the walks we also kept crossing paths with all the other teams in particular Richard, Sheena, Rebecca and George who to put in succinctly are "little Trojans" when it comes to delivery!

I was able to talk to a number of residents as I went round in particular the couple who’d just got back from shopping. They used to vote Conservative but as they were coming up to retirement were really concerned about the escalating council tax and limited state pension provision especially as their own personal pensions were not performing as well as they would have hoped. I have to admit I think I gained two votes today!

Before many of my friends headed off we tucked into a cup of tea and home-made Ginger Cake - hope there’s some left for tomorrow.

As a bit of a treat (and the fact I have no time to shop for food!) Kerry and I headed out for Tapas at El Picante on the London Road in Camberley. This was the first place I went out in when I moved down here 18 months ago and the service is always really friendly and the food is great. We were eventually joined by another friend who’d been held up. Lindy’s a vet and had been operating on a dog that afternoon trying to remove a tumour and it had taken longer than she thought it would, but as the dog was now doing well it was obviously worth spending the extra time and care. I’m sure that its owners are glad she did too. Its great she, like all my other friends has found the time to drive over to help out. I am rather lucky to have so many willing to do so

Friday, April 22

Another busy day of visits, phone calls, emails and even a trip out with the police.

I went to Portesbury School today, another school for special needs although these children’s needs were more severe. I was shown around by the deputy head once I had passed the first test of working out where the entrance was! There is a wide range of abilities and ages here, and continuing assessment is key to ensuring they receive the best education for their specific needs. Facilities ranged from a multi sensory room to interactive white boards.

I also went over to their FE block (Further Education) for the 16-19 pupils. This had a real feel of a sixth form common room and it was nice to hear from some of their attendance at local FE colleges, and one woman had recently completed work experience at Littlewoods.

Just about had enough time to draft four letters and eat half a bowl of soup before heading out to Collingwood Technical College. I chatted with Jerry Odie, (the Principal) in particular regarding the cost of external exams between 16 &18 - £141,000!!! Another good reason to reduce the number of exams for that age group! The tour was also interesting; the facilities in the technology and design room were amazing including a wind tunnel so the pupils could learn about aerodynamics.

Two things that stand out from my visit the new Sixth Form Centre apart from meeting the students was the art and design room where one pupil showed me a fantastic picture of a caricature of George Bush with the World Trade Centre and Osama Bin Laden which led to a discussion of September 11th - I was in NYC at the time and could probably have been one of the last people ever to stand outside on the Observation Deck as my friend and I were up there the afternoon before when the rain started to pour down.

The other, was seeing Sarah-Louise’s finalised communication project. She’d interviewed me as an 'expert political campaigner' a month or so before, it was nice to see it had gone to good use.

Later, I went out canvassing in Windlesham with Cllr Meurig Williams and team it was a more successful night than we thought it would be.

Rushed home to let Kerry into my house, (who’d driven all the way down from Preston to help), before running out to go on patrol with the local police. I’d been out last year and wanted to get a feel for how things had changed and in particular new trouble spots.

Our plans had slightly changed due to the horrific attack in Little Bookham as obviously Surrey Police were using every resource to investigate it. PC Ian Jarrett took me around the area and we covered reported incidents in Lightwater, Frimley, Frimley Green and Camberley. The majority of the calls involved groups of youths which had been reported allegedly drinking alcohol - some causing problems, others not.

PC Jarrett knew/recognised many of the youths as the local beat officer which was an added advantage when dealing with them. On one occasion we confiscated beer which appeared to have been bought by an 18 year old to give to underage drinkers and returned it to his parents. On another, underage drinking incident a known individual had been verbally abusive and run off, PC Jarrett was able to immediately inform his father which on past experience was the most effective course of action.

I was concerned with the fact that the majority of the police in the area attend incidents on their own which can on occasion put them and others at risk. Funding is obviously an issue but it did compound my view that we do need more police on the streets and need to provide them with the technology to limit their time in the office

Thursday, April 21

Wow what a day – I have only just stopped and I feel as though I have been on the run all day.

I was up again for the Lib Dem press conference; today was an issue very close to my heart – scrapping Tuition and Top-up Fees. Most students, including my sister, will be leaving university at least £13,000 in debt. I am very worried that increasing debt and growing lack of affordable housing will put many graduates off working for public services and choose jobs with better pay.

I visited Mytchett Place Primary School today fulfilling a promise made when Charles Kennedy visited back in January. I had visited each class and even with the number of schools I have visited in the last few weeks there are still more ways for children to relate to my yellow rosette other than a politician including a dancer and a schools inspector! I hasten to add this would have been the same for any colour of rosette! One thing I did realise today was the prevalence of outdoor swimming pools at the schools which I hadn’t expected.

The good news is that we are obviously winning the Poster campaign as the children had been spotting our bright orange diamonds all over the area. Unfortunately, we are still suffering from vandalism – we can obviously not be certain who is doing this but as ours are the only posters being attacked it does make you wonder which party these vandals support…

I went straight from there to Main Square Shopping Centre to join Matt, David and Karen at the NSPCC Road show to sign up to their pledges to protect children and offer help and support to them and their parents. All of the candidates were invited along and initially I thought I was going to be the only one to support this worthwhile cause; however we were joined eventually by Chris the Labour candidate but no sign of the Tory candidate.

Managed to grab a sandwich whilst being driven to Guildford, to be interviewed by Bill Buckley at BBC Southern Counties Radio. The aim was to find out why I wanted to be a candidate/member of parliament, what I had done so far and what changes that would mean to my life. Rather refreshingly it was not intended to be about politics per se, but I did manage to get a quote in on the “Real Alternative”! I’ve not done an interview at this length live before but Bill made the job easy and I enjoyed it – plus I think it came across quite well.

Last but certainly not least, Churches Together held a hustings for the three main party candidates at St Martin’s Church on the Old Dean. Emotive issues such as Abortion, Assisted Death and Asylum & Immigration came up along with Health, Poverty and Pensions. One issue which didn’t come up was going to war in Iraq. As this was a trust and moral question I was rather surprised was omitted at a church hustings. There was a reasonably amicable approach from each of the candidates. I think I gave common sense and succinct answers some given much better than others. But overall it had been a good day – now I really need my bed!

Wednesday, April 20

As usual I dragged myself out of bed to watch the Lib Dem press conference which highlighted our plans to abolish the unfair council tax and replace it with a local income tax.

This pledge has been driven by Edward Davey MP who, along with Charles, gave a very strong presentation which in light of last which slight hiccup on figures was very helpful. It’s certainly become a hot issue as now the opportunistic Tories say they don’t agree with revaluation (which will put many people in an even worse situation than now) but they still want to stick with Council Tax but then they were the ones that introduced it weren’t they!

My first visit today was to the Heather Ridge Infant School, just down the road from where I live. I met the staff during their coffee break which was great. Not only did they have some very pertinent questions regarding the practical implementation of our Early Years Policy (i.e. smaller class sizes for five-sevens) they gave me a real insight into how it would affect them practically and actually how they have been affected by the constant changes to the curriculum. I was then taken on a tour by the Head, Ms Whatling and was impressed by the books and equipment which had been provided by the parents. It was also fascinating observing the different techniques used to teach the pupils, some of whom were learning about the Great Fire of London.

I managed to fit in locating three months time sheets and running in to hand over my paperwork to Ian to progress my mortgage and spoke to Darren to sort out my legal counsel (I know I am a lawyer but its far better to have someone else to do this and to be honest I have enough on at the moment!).

Highlight of the day was playing Bingo with the Derby and Jones Club in Lightwater. There were lots of people and we had an entertaining afternoon. They were all rather more expert on the game than I and I could have been forgiven for thinking it was a Lib Dem event due to the obligatory raffle. I won two prizes including a packet of biscuits which I’ll feed the troops with at the weekend and I even managed to win a line! Thankfully my winning streak stopped there as I wasn’t sure if they’d invite me back again if I did!

And finally, I attended Surrey Heath Borough Council meeting as Cllr David Whitcroft was presenting the CCTV petition for the installation of CCTV which I had been collating across the constituency - this campaign has really struck a chord with the local residents and we have received a lot of support for it.

Tuesday, April 19

This is only my second day without having to go into London but I have already got into a routine. My alarm’s set and I am downstairs at 7.30 to listen to the full Lib Dem press conference, check my emails and my diary for the day. Today’s press conference launched our health pledge for quicker diagnosis to tackle hidden waiting lists by offering diagnosis by the quickest practical route, public or private, so that NHS treatment can begin more quickly. Our survey of NHS Trusts revealed waits of six months for a scan are not uncommon; waits of a year are not unheard of. Lives are put at risk and this is not acceptable.

I visited Lorraine Infant School today. I was rather surprised by the fact that one class had just had a snake visitor until one of the pupils pointed out the toy snake curled around the arm of the chair! They have made great use of some of their ground by turning it into an environmental conservation area complete with pond.

After lunch I joined Emma, who will be training to be a children’s nurse next year, and we headed to the Heatherside Community Centre to give blood. I had received three or four letters since the beginning of the year asking me to go and finally I had the time to go along it did help being walking distance away. It’s a worthwhile thing to do, and I feel rather guilty it’s been over four years since I last gave blood. I have to admit the waiting was a little unnerving, I would have preferred they had taken it as soon as I got in there, however, it was a painless experience and the staff made the short time pass very pleasantly.

I was responding to calls and emails when the news showed the white smoke coming out of the Vatican chimney (thank goodness for the bells otherwise I don’t think we’d ever be sure what colour the smoke was). This was obviously a momentous day and it reminded me of when I visited Rome and had once stood where those millions stood today. Let’s hope that Pope Benedict XVI lives up to his namesake as a peacemaker.

The night ended with canvassing in Bagshot with Cllrs Meurig Williams and Brian Ward and then I joined a hive of activity at our central HQ when our team had surpassed themselves. We needed to get numerous Target Letters ready to go this evening as for various reasons they had been held up and it was important they were out the next day. At short notice we filled the house and got the job done which was brilliant.

Just remembered I meant to mention the Queensway Neighbourhood Watch meeting last night - it was a really interesting meeting and I am glad I went along. I hadn’t realised what it takes to set one up, thankfully its not a high crime area but I think it’s a useful tool against crime and its a great opportunity to bring communities together. It brought home the need to look out for your neighbours and to check up on the more vulnerable.

Monday, April 18

Rushed downstairs to turn my laptop on just in case it fixed itself – it hadn’t! I’d have to deal with that later Before I got started, I received a rather encouraging call, someone had seen that their neighbour had had a Lib Dem poster board put up in their garden and rang to ask for one for their garden.

I visited Carwandan House Community School, which is a special needs school not far from where I live, which currently caters for 8-19 year olds. John Cope (the head) and I discussed the merits of special needs schools; needs ranging from learning difficulties, to more complex issues relating to mental capacity and how the children benefitted here rather than if they were included in a mainstream school.

It was interesting to hear that they also work with a large number of mainstream schools in the area offering useful training to the support staff to help them to identify if children have special needs and also how to work with them in the mainstream school. We visited a number of classrooms and one of the first things I noticed was just how calm the school was. The children looked as though they were enjoying being at the school and some of them told me found this environment much better to deal with than the more boisterous nature of main stream schools.

I timed my visit well, as one class had just finished its citizenship classes and I was invited to speak to the class about what I did as a candidate and what I intended to do when I became an MP. I’d brought with me some of our literature for them to look at which I found to be quite a useful prop and they in turn we able to tell me about their recent trip to the House of Commons. One thing I took from this visit, was the boy who had made a fantastic name sign for Mr Cope, which bearing in mind he had been in a referral unit previously, illustrated what an impact being at this school had had on him.

In the afternoon, I visited Bagshot Infant School where Mrs Jones (the head) spent time talking to me about the school and we went around the classrooms to see children taking part in music and dance, crafts and sports. This was an interesting contrast to Carwandan as they had an inclusive policy and had extra support staff to cope with the 7/8 children with special needs. Their integration into the school seemed to work really well. The good thing about inclusion is that it benefits all pupils who learn that people can be different and not necessarily as fortunate as themselves and hopefully this will have a knock on effect in future life.

Overall, I think there is room for both types of approaches – in all instances the decision must be based on what is best for that particular child. I have a Neighbourhood Watch meeting to go to tonight and will report back on that tomorrow as I now have to go buy a new screen for my computer to tide me over until the end of the campaign!

Sunday, April 17

What a nightmare! I sat down on Sunday evening to read the days emails and write my blog only to watch as my screen disappeared slowly in front of me. I quickly ran to find a CD rom to save what I could as at the time, I had no idea whether it was just a problem with the screen or worse. I managed to save my emails to the CD before the screen went blank completely but the amount of work I have on my computer that could have been lost for good was immense. Funny how you get so reliant on emails and computers, I found that nearly all my tasks that night were based around my computer, so after a few phone calls, I had my first (and I am sure last) early night of the campaign.

Before that, most of my day was spent driving around the constituency to each of our HQs to join the many activists of all ages sitting around tables powering through the thousands of labels we hadn’t yet stuck on leaflets. The time that all these volunteers are willing give up is amazing and very much appreciated – I don’t think I alone could have stuck labels on 40,000 leaflets in two days as we managed to do this weekend.

We were rather disappointed today to hear that some of our poster boards had been vandalised but unfortunately that can be par for the course in an election campaign whether it is young people or even other political parties. But not to be down hearted we immediately replaced them (more securely this time!).

I headed out canvassing late afternoon with Cllrs Bob Smith and Fran Bennie and our County Council candidate Tony Cowell and his wife Sheena or perhaps I should re-name it “the umbrella relay”! In sheer optimism (although you’d think I would have known by now) I didn’t bring an umbrella with me as the sun had been shining all day but almost as soon as we started the rain came down. I was OK when I was in front of a door as they were mostly sheltered, one resident and I even stood under their garage door whilst we chatted, but in between houses, I was rescued by each of the other canvassers where appropriate and sheltered to the next house, so thankfully I didn’t look too much like a drowned rat by the time we finished!

At the end of the day I was left hoping that someone could help me fix my computer as soon as possible tomorrow.

Saturday, April 16

First stop this morning was at one of our HQs which was a hive of activity – we had teams going out to put poster boards up, delivering leaflets and labelling.

Second stop was Camberley Town centre where a group of us handed out leaflets on our education policy, stickers and I even had my friend Jez blowing up helium balloons almost as soon as he got off the train having travelled down from York!

I spoke to a number of residents, to find out what issues are important to them. I genuinely like talking to them, they all have different takes on similar issues which is useful to me for getting a balanced view.

We headed back to join the others in the labelling exercise. We had tens of thousands of leaflets to label and stuff for the Royal Mail freepost. In national elections, each political party is offered the opportunity to send one mailing to each voter in the post free of charge. Obviously, we take advantage of this but it takes an organisation of mammoth proportions, using every resource to stick labels and stuff the letters to around 70,000 voters in a very short space of time.

It can, however, be really sociable and fun. We filled living rooms at all of our venues for most of the day and we had a great time catching up and swapping stories from years of campaigning. Such as, letterboxes coming off in your hand just as the owner opens the door and small dogs who bounce six feet off the ground behind a door as you try to get a leaflet through whilst keeping your fingers intact.

The one which got the most laughs was where someone delivered a leaflet to an open door to be faced with two large dogs bounding down the hall towards them and knowing they won’t be able to make it out of the gate in time, what could they do? Shut the door and worry later if the owner has their keys! (what made them laugh was the re-enactment of the look on their face as they were torn between running and shutting the door). The theme was definitely incidents concerning canines and letter boxes which fight back!

I’ve already got to the stage where I have no food at home so chinese and Dr. Who were definitely on the cards. Little did I know that Dr. Who would provide an insight into my future life in the Commons, where the country was being run by Aliens and there was a possibility of going to war! Sound familiar…!

Friday, April 15

Today, I am officially a seasoned parliamentary candidate as I have already worn through the soles of my favourite shoes!!!

I watched the Lib Dem Press Conference for the first time this morning. Charles had obviously managed to get more than a few hours sleep and I thought it worked really well with him presenting our commitment to the environment highlighting the 'Green Thread' running through Liberal Democrat policy and then joining Norman Baker and Sue Doughty for questions.

We are committed to, amongst other things, 60% recycling of household waste by 2012 and 20% of electricity generated by renewable sources by 2020. This reminds me of one of my earliest memories when I was sitting outside with my nanna, sucking polos, watching my aunt and uncle’s house in South Norfolk being built - I was only three or four. The reason I think of this, was that even in the 70s they were installing solar panels in the roof to help power the heating in the house. I’ve never understood why something as simple as this has not become a standard practice in new developments.

What a sad day this is for Rover and awful for their workers. I hope that something can be done to minimise the effect on Rover workers and their families. The priority must be securing a long-term future for this highly skilled workforce and economic regeneration of this area.

There have been a number of articles in the papers today about marginal seats and I must admit when they start talking about my friends Jon Neal, Justine McGuiness and Peter Carroll (to name a few) having good prospects to take over from David Davis, Oliver Letwin and Michael Howard respectively, I feel rather proud to know them, especially as I know the amount of hard work they have put in with their teams to get where they are.

Having said that it’s up to the voters but once you can convince people you can win, its fantastic how the votes increase in droves, especially from disaffected Labour voters as, in those seats and her in Surrey Heath, Labour have no chance of winning!

This was my last day at work in London until after the Election and I won’t be missing the early morning struggle to get to Brookwood for my train. What I will say is a big thank you to my friends there who, for the most part, have been extremely supportive and encouraging and, who knows, I might see one or two down here in the next few weeks.

Thursdy, April 14

Just to make my life easier today, I left my mobile at home, and like anyone else who does this I felt like my right arm had been cut off.

It has all my teams numbers on it and normally it’s the best way to get in touch with me. Luckily, I could remember a few key numbers and a while ago I had set up a pin number so I was able to check my messages during the day – however, I admit I rushed home to pick it up before canvassing and in the time between leaving work and getting home I still had 8 missed calls!

Today, we finally launched our manifesto which had been postponed due to the birth of Charles’ first child. The Liberal Democrat priorities for the next parliament will be based on our principles of Freedom, Fairness and Trust and include

• Free eye and dental checks and lower prescription charges,
• Free personal care for the elderly - help with things like washing and feeding for people with long-term illnesses.
• Lower class sizes - with 21,000 new primary school teachers to give our children the best start in life.
• Scrapping Tuition Fees and Top Up Fees.
• 10,000 extra police on the police backed up by 20,000 community support officers.
• Scrapping the Council Tax, introducing a local income tax
• Better pensions - £100 on the basic state pension for the over 75s.

A Citizen's Pension, for the first time, gives women a full basic pension by right, addressing a scandal which has been ignored far too long.

I was canvassing with Cllr John Faulkner in Chobham tonigh and others, including Lindsey who is one of our stalwart campaigners. We spent most of the evening looking up as we weren’t quite sure whether it would rain again. We were finding the Labour votes very soft here, especially as there is no Labour County Candidate and we found that a number of our key pledges especially education were well received. There was also an amount of sympathy for Charles, who had looked quite tired at the launch but most people related to why he’d had such little sleep and understood.

Finally, I’ve been in the process of buying the house I live in (not that I don’t have enough to do at the moment!!!) and I was rather pleased that I had a call from Ian to say my mortgage was agreed and it looks like I am on my way to buying my first house!

Wednesday, April 13

First thing this morning, I responded to a question from the editor of the Camberley News & Mail.

He has decided to put a question to all of the parliamentary candidates in their distribution area each week on a relevant local issue - this one related to Housing Development in the South East which is a contentious issue here. Getting the balance right between the need for affordable housing and protecting green belt land and the erosion of the character of the towns and villages, is not straight forward.

I nearly caused an avalanche on the way into my house this afternoon, as I stumbled over the mountain of mail at my door. It just keeps increasing, some was personal, I received some good luck notes including one from my Granddad which was really nice, a number of different manifestos for organisations and questionnaires to fill in when I have the time and also a couple of invites to various organisations in Surrey Heath - that’s what I dealt with first.

On the way to canvassing tonight, I admit I diverted to the Army and Navy Store in Camberley. Both the investment bank I currently work for and my previous law firm had dress down policies of smart casual and I realised that as this campaign continued I was going to need another suit before my favourite ones wear out (or at least that was what I kept telling myself when the two friendly assistants were packing my new suit away!)

To be honest, this is definitely a profession when first impressions count. You don’t have too long when you are on the doorstep and your appearance can matter - you need to look like someone they can trust to be their MP as well as sound it, it’s a whole package. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to wear a suit but it’s something I prefer to do.

Canvassing was good tonight in Frimley Green again with Cllr Duncan Clark and team, we covered loads of ground tonight. I was interested in the number of people who had moved here since the last General Election and therefore in someway we have a blank canvass to work from and its interesting the different perspectives they come from depending on who had represented them before.

I received a call from two friends this evening who are working on Kathy Newbound’s campaign in Maidenhead - it's great to hear how other candidates are doing and I knew Kathy through my work with the Gender Balance Task Force. It sounds like their campaign is gathering momentum and they are working really hard. I hope that continues as Kathy would make a great MP for Maidenhead.

And last but not least its Desperate Housewives night, so yes I did take a brief break to watch it!

Tuesday, April 12

Fantastic news about Charles and Sarah’s new addition, Donald James, it was definitely a talking point at work today and there was a real feel good factor amongst the Lib Dem Candidates.

I rushed back tonight to join the team out canvassing in Parkside. This is proving to be an interesting area for us. Just after I was first selected as the Lib Dem Candidate, two and a half years ago there was a by-election here. We worked extremely hard and despite the snow that was falling at the time, the borough seat was won. A few months later we retained the seat at the Borough elections almost gaining the other two from the Tories and we regained a seat at the neighbouring Heatherside ward (which is where I now live). These two wards form a division in the County Council Elections which we have just found out is one of a number without Labour candidates - so we have got a real opportunity here.

That’s why we had a large team of us out tonight. Initially the outs won! You can never quite tell what time is the best time to catch people in and it’s different for each area but we soon got on a role as we, including Cllrs Fran Bennie and Bob Smith not to mention Tony Cowell the CC candidate and others covered a lot of ground. When you have a group like this, it’s much better to have one person directing us to houses and attempting to keep us constantly moving. However, its more difficult to do if you are the candidate, as not only on the one hand do you want to find out whether you will get their support but on the other, its important to find out what issues are of concern to them by listening to residents rather than spouting off a whole list of your latest policies. The only problem with that is when you finally say goodbye you find the team has already moved onto the next street so I spent a lot of tonight playing catch up – but I guess it will keep me fit!

Talking of which, leisure provision for young people came up a couple of times tonight, which I'd like to see more of and it reminded me that I was missing the first two games of the new 5 a side football league and my team were playing without me tonight as I had decided to concentrate on the election. We'd won the last league and were hoping to do the double. As their current goal keeper and when allowed out, defender I was keeping my fingers crossed they would do well. They won one and lost one – the latter against the team we narrowly beat in the last league. We'll have to rectify that when I get a chance to play again!

Monday, 11 April

Today was a big day; the local Liberal Democrat party officially adopted me as their parliamentary candidate. Following that, we were holding an Election Rally which was to be attended by Baroness Margaret Sharp and both of us would be speaking to rally the troops.

However, before that I went straight to Guildford to be interviewed by James Diamond at the Eagle Radio. We’d first met when Charles Kennedy visited Mytchett Primary School back in January. I’d been invited down for an interview, as each of the other candidates had done and we discussed three issues important to the electorate in Surrey Heath.

I chose Early Years Education, Crime and Axing the Council Tax which had all come up on the doorstep recently. Plus, we discussed what had happened in the constituency since the last election. Which in Surrey Heath, included the de-selection of the Tory MP and doubling the number of our councillors so that we had a Lib Dem representative in about 50% of the constituency, when Labour halved theirs. The outcome of the up coming election is not quite as straight forward as some may have first thought!

I rather enjoyed the interview and Surrey Heath is being featured on 29th April, so I look forward to hearing how it turned out.

When I got back from the interview, I spent time working on my speech for later. I could have spent half my speech thanking everyone individually for all of their help so far but I hope they forgive me for not doing that as it would have sounded more like an Oscar Ceremony than an Election Rally.

Once the formalities of the adoption meeting were over, (which I have to say was a bit nerve wracking – they could have changed their minds if I’d pushed them one leaflet too far…! I admit I was touched when I got a unanimous vote) we held our Election Rally. Margaret who was agent for Sue Doughty when she won Guildford gave a rousing speech bringing forward her experience on Education and focused on the authoritarian attitude of both Labour and the Tories and us as the Real Alternative. Following her was not the easiest but I think it went well. A brief summary of my speech would be “We have no glass ceilings in Surrey Heath”!

I was followed by my Agent Bob Somper, doing what he does best raising money for the campaign and tonight was no exception. When it was all over, those that were left retreated to the Red Lion in Lightwater for a well earned pint!

On a final note, just as I was putting the final touches to this blog, Charles and Sarah Kennedy were celebrating the birth of their son, Donald James. I wish all of their family good health and best wishes for the future.

Sunday, April 10

Today got off to an early start, as my mother was keen to get moving especially as she had a five hour journey home ahead of her later. So as I took mum out for a delivery run, the most complicated task of the day was trying to get all my guests through the shower before the hot water ran out!

The weather was lovely, so it was great to be out and about. We’d gained an extra pair of hands, as another university friend, Dave joined us. We covered a lot of ground in the constituency, delivering in Mytchett, Heatherside and Chobham. In fact, we think our team delivered 1500-2000 leaflets!!! And that’s not including all of the local help which was out there today as well.

Chobham is one of the more rural villages in the constituency and reminds me of where I was brought up. I met a number of the local residents today who were very friendly, including a man who’d been living there for decades since he was eight and he had all three generations of family living near by. We are quite well known here as we hold Jumble Sales and 50/50 Auctions twice a year and I always make an effort to introduce myself at these events. Plus, Cllr John Faulkner used to live here and he along with Cllr Judy Douch has worked quite closely with the Chobham residents on a variety of issues.

I was sorry to see my friends leave at the end of the day but “they’ll be back” – I hope!

Once I had had time to catch up with my emails, I was off again to Guildford, to Sue Doughty MP’s Election Rally. Sue has given me a lot of help and support over the years, and I wanted to give her mine. The Tories are pouring money into this seat to try and win it back but no amount of money is a substitute for hard work. Sue is undoubtedly a hard worker and well respected in Guildford. You definitely get value for money from her and indeed any Lib Dem MP - in January, three hard-working Liberal Democrats topped the Evening Standard survey for value for money not bad as we currently only have seven MPs in London – not for long I hope… Talking of London MPs, Edward Davey was also there to give a rousing speech in support of Sue.

Saturday, April 9

Today was a real success – all my friends turned up having managed to find the rendezvous point at Cllr Fran Bennie’s home which wasn’t bad considering they were coming from Rayleigh, London and Fareham. The sun was shining, if a little chilly and one by one the troops appeared. We soon had them out and about either putting up poster boards, delivering leaflets, collating petition signatures and if they were lucky some had the fun of pasting up the poster boards to go out. It was great at lunch when we filled the house with volunteers eating food prepared kindly by Sheena Cowell.

I was able to go out delivering with my friends which was great, it was a nice mix too, I was at University with Kathie and have known her over 10 years, Jo who I met at Law School and went travelling with and my ex-flatmate whom I still play football with. As I said yesterday, when you are caught up in politics it’s important to have people who can ensure you are grounded and catching up with them meant that I can talk about things which are not just about politics.

So the first thing that came up, was the Royal Wedding – to be honest our first thoughts were to what Camilla would be wearing and when we eventually saw the pictures later that day we were all suitably impressed, especially the outfit for the blessing. Earlier in the year, we’d all been on Kathie’s hen weekend and she was now officially a newlywed herself (her husband John had dutifully been sent out with a poster board team earlier).

This, and perhaps me assisting a gentleman move his new wicker sofa into his house(!), led to a discussion on first time buyers as they had been looking at buying their first house and due to the increase in house prices – the average cost of a house for first time buyers has now exceeded £100,000.

Something really must be done to help those who would like to get their foot on the housing ladder. Some initiatives the Lib Dems propose include shared equity schemes where you can part own, part rent a property through councils, housing associations and developers to consider shared equity and Mutual home ownership which is a totally new concept, primarily aimed at helping young people starting out. Rather than buying the home outright, people would buy shares in a mutual home ownership trust that owned their home.

In the evening, two other volunteers turned up in preparation for Sunday, including my mother whose birthday it was. So a large group of us went out to The Swan in Ash Vale which was great – I’d been there for Sunday lunch loads of times but never in the evening and the food and service were well worth the trip.

Friday, April 8

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster and I am only just coming back down to earth. The amount of emails, telephone calls and mail has increased ten-fold and today was no exception.

On my way home from work, I stopped off at Shaws my local supermarket to buy supplies for the weekend. I have a number of friends and family coming down this weekend to help with the various tasks and to take the pressure off my growing team of volunteers. This is great, as I really enjoy getting together with them, especially as it gives me a different perspective on how the election campaign is being seen through the eyes of non-party political activists. This stream is going to continue until May 5th. It’s a bit like trying to feed the five thousand.

I also popped into the Grape & Grain which is also on the Heatherside Arcade to collect petition signatures for my CCTV campaign. Over the last year, I have been campaigning for the installation of CCTV in a number of local shopping arcades, due to an increase in anti-social behaviour. This is something that local residents, including myself, feel very strongly about and this is shown by the number of petition signatures which keep piling in. CCTV isn’t an option which should be looked at in isolation, more police on the streets, better facilities for young people and tougher community sentencing and looking at the causes of crime also play a part – I’m sure I’ll come back to this during the campaign.

I finally started ploughing through all of my correspondence and one thing struck me. I have been the prospective parliamentary candidate here for over 2 years and whilst I have received mail from pressure groups, charities etc during that time it is now coming in by the bucket load. Today, I have letters in relation to Nursing, Diabetes, Farming and Transport to name a few. They all look very well presented, cover important topics and I hope to have the time to read them all. But if I had received these 6 months ago, instead of the four weeks before the General Election, I would have had time to do them more justice. Whatever, happens I fully intend to follow them up at some point and hopefully that will be within the next four weeks.

Late night was spent catching up with part of my core campaign team as we swapped information of where we stood for the weekends actions. Lastly, I went to Farnborough to pick up the first of my friends (I never ask anyone to get a train to Camberley as it just takes too long – something must be done about that). I also noticed petrol has gone up again over 85p a litre, which is extortionate – I shall be driving around tomorrow to try and find a better deal.

Thursday, April 7

Well I’ve finally dried out! I got caught in the torrential downpour on my way home last night – I even think there was some hail. I then attempted to canvass residents in Frimley Green with Councillor Duncan Clark and team. Whilst we were game to continue, unfortunately, the paper canvass cards we used to collect the data didn’t hold up too well in the rain. Not to be put off, we all returned home to continue telephone canvassing.

Unlike the other parties we do not use computers to call local people – we prefer the personal touch. I talked to a number of residents this evening, interestingly education came up a lot – our launch today of our Education Manifesto had obviously struck a chord with the voters. A number really liked the idea of scrapping the Child Trust Bond and putting the money into Early Years Education which they agreed would be more beneficial in the long term for children.

One lady had voted for Labour last time and genuinely couldn’t remember why – she called it a lapse of concentration and wouldn’t be making that mistake again! I admit I put her down as a probable!

I spoke to my sister Daisy today who’s in her final year in Winchester. She has worked really hard at university, having two jobs whilst trying to keep up with her studies. I and the rest of my family have helped out where possible yet she is still going to end up with £12,000 of debt when she leaves in a few months.

When I was at university, I still received a grant, although, it reduced each year I was there and I did take full use of the student loans (which increased every year I was there). I campaigned to bring back the grant then and have continued campaigning on these issues as student debt continues to escalate out of control. The Lib Dems believe everyone should have the opportunity to make the best of their talents. That is why we would scrap tuition fees and top-up fees for students. Higher education should be based on the ability to learn not the ability to pay.

Wednesday April 6

Yesterday was a little less frenetic than the day before which I was grateful for. Like many other candidates, the last few years have been a balancing act between my day job as a lawyer working in London (which pays the rent and bills) and nearly all my spare time spent campaigning in Surrey Heath. It always amazes me when talking to people how few are aware that you don’t get paid to be a candidate and if you do it properly, it’s like having two jobs. But I have to admit it’s worth it.

We launched our Family Manifesto, the plans include extending pre and after-school care, offering new mothers a maternity income guarantee equivalent to the minimum wage of £170 per week for the first 6 months after the birth of their first child, and increasing nursery care for three to four-year olds. I think this assistance is long overdue, especially in respect of maternity pay.

I must be “at that age” as no fewer than five friends have had their first children in the last year. They are all in different circumstances, but at some point will or have returned to work because they can’t afford not to. It is such a shame when mothers (or fathers) who want to stay at home can’t and from the experience I have witnessed – I thought it was tough being a parliamentary candidate but that’s nothing to being torn between staying at home with your baby and needing to go out to work to provide for them.

Last nightI managed to fit in a meeting with Tony Cowell, our county council candidate in Heatherside and Parkside where I live, joined up with a team of deliverers who still amaze me at how many houses they can deliver to in one evening not to mention the number of telephone calls and emails I needed to respond to once I was home.

I did however, succumb to watching Desperate Housewives on E4 – I admit I have become a fan of this quirky comedy drama. It hit the headlines yesterday when the stars of the show fell out during a Vogue photo shoot. However, what colour their swimsuits were didn’t bother me. What did, was that even with five pretty women, they still found it necessary to airbrush the picture. It does worry me that doctoring photographs in magazines does give the wrong impression to young girls who are susceptible to eating disorders to try and look the women in the photos.

Tuesday, April 5

Finally, its official the General Election will take place on May 5. I was selected as candidate back in November 2002 and we now have the opportunity to see whether all the hard work that we have put in pays off.

I woke up this morning to the news on Radio Four that a Labour candidate had defected to the Liberal Democrats having become disillusioned with Tony Blair, and downstairs was the Camberley News on my doormat with a picture of me on the front page highlighting the fact that I am doing this blog.

Not bad for the first morning of the campaign. But it didn’t just start here. Last weekend, we had teams delivering leaflets, stuffing envelopes and preparing paperboards. I often join the deliverers as its great to talk to local residents and not only realise they have read the latest FOCUS leaflet, but have actually filled in the petition on installing CCTV and already sent it off to me.

The majority of our work is completed by volunteers, so I invited many of them over to my house for drinks and nibbles on Saturday night to say thank you. Thanks to the weather we were able to spend most of the evening in my garden, it was a really enjoyable night.

Last night I attended the Windlesham Parish AGM, in Lightwater. Local Lib Dem councillor Patricia Pinder, introduced me to a number of local residents all of whom had stories to tell as the majority had lived there for decades – I look forward to meeting them again during the campaign. I also now have an in depth knowledge of the history of Nurseries and Rhododendrons in Surrey Heath thanks to the talk that followed.

Today, I have been inundated with calls to wish me well from friends and family, media interviews. Rushed back to Surrey after work (although I have to admit the train didn’t appear to know that I was in a rush!) to join councillor Duncan Clark and many of our councillors canvassing in Frimley Green (where the current deselected Tory County Councillor [not to be confused with the Tory MP who has also been deselected!] is supporting Duncan to win!) I have to say we had some very positive feedback. I hope it’s all like that!

When I finally got home I had received a yellow teddy bear from the Gender Balance Task Force wishing me good luck and offering support during the election. What a great way to end the day!