The Hadlow Tree Hugger met her Waterloo

West Kent's Conservative 'war horses' got a sniff of the gunpowder this weekend and upped the ante in the battle for KCC.

Across the three Associations we had 60+ people campaigning in our key marginal seats - with additional help and support coming from Medway, London and Croydon.

A group of twenty were out in Hadlow supporting candidate Matthew Balfour. Reports back indicate the Conservative vote is holding up strongly, though poor Chris Philp (pictured on the right hand side of the photo above) did meet a ranting woman who screamed abuse after him as he walked up the road. Having fought Glenda Jackson in Hamsptead & Kilburn in 2010, I am sure Chris was quite prepared for acid tongued old harridans.

At another property an encounter with a Tree Hugger ended in a delightful home win!  At a particularly large detached house one of our canvassers was harangued by a Green Party supporter. Apparently we should canvass by phone as this doesn't result in petrol pollution, and the manifesto should be emailed in pdf format to save print and paper. Just as Ms Nut Cutlet was puffing herself up into a state of high dudgeon, a Parcelforce van pulled up and delivered a large quantity of books from Amazon. I am delighted to report that our canvasser immediately seized on the hypocrisy and suggested that investing in a Kindle might also help save the planet.

Elsewhere, we had teams out in Pembury (led by Tunbridge Wells MP, Greg Clark), in Snodland (with mutual aid coming from Rochester and Chatham) and Larkfield - where a morning spent canvassing was followed by a community litter-pick, led by Tracey Crouch MP. 

Finally, I was amused to spot Kent Liberal Democrat Leader Trudy Dean's garden posters - from which two little words "Lib Dem" appear to have been omitted.  

If I was a Lib Dem, I would be ashamed to admit it, too!