GOTV! Still a few slots left!

Amazing response from members of Tonbridge & Malling and Chatham & Aylesford, sending troops into Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone to help GET OUT THE VOTE. We still have a few afternoon and early evening slots to fill. Come and join us! 

Email me at westkentconservatives@gmail.com to offer your services!

"Thank You" to our candidates and their teams

Each year I send a letter of thanks and good luck to all our candidates and their campaign teams. Here is this year's to our Tunbridge Wells candidates and activists.

Full steam ahead on the phones tonight!

The West Kent Towers Phone Bank was at full steam tonight - all ten lines in use; with two additional people on their mobiles.

Once again, volunteers from Tonbridge & Malling have been absolutely outstanding with their mutual aid. Tonight's team was led by T&Ms Parliamentary Candidate, Tom Tugendhat and T&M Chairman, Jacques Arnold.  Also present were Russell Lancaster, Vivian Branson, Michael Payne, Jon Botten, Matt Boughton and Culverden candidate Don Sloan. 

For the geeks and anoraks

Here is our weekend "What Have the Conservatives Ever Done for Us?" leaflet. Obviously different versions for each ward. 

Let me make it clear, UKIP is not a racist party

Annie Get Your Coat

A Stella performance from Kent's Polie & Crime Commissioner, who never fails to live down to my expectations.

Watch and weep.

Misunderstanding the onion: WATCH

"What IS my job?", she asks: WATCH

"My budget is £317 million....
I could have had a top of the range Mercedes..." WATCH

If she's still paying her Lib Dem Campaign Manager £9,000 per month of our money as her image advisor, I hope she asks for a refund.

Cheer up, the clock is ticking. Only two years left.

I've done it! 4 stone off with two weeks spare!

Well, I've done it!  At my weekly weigh-in this afternoon I had lost another 3lb since last week, bringing my total weight loss since 1 January to four stone. I've hit my target with two weeks to spare.

I am, naturally, absolutely delighted. I feel healthier, clothes and suits I had long given up on now fit again and I feel much better about myself.  And, of course, thanks to the generosity of our members and supporters who have sponsored my endeavour, I have raised over £2,500 for West Kent funds. (That's code for "get your cheque books out" as I am about to ask for your money!)

My journey isn't over - though stage one of it is. I am still 17 stone 10lb, which is still overweight. My intention is to lose a futher 2 stone over the summer months, but at a slower pace than I have been losing since New Year.


I am really grateful to my friends and colleagues who have been so kind and supportive. Your good wishes really encouraged me to achieve my goal.

PS - just in case you are wondering about the varying height - I haven't chopped two inches off my legs to help the weight loss (though it would have been easier). I am actually 6'3" but in my keenness to see how I have done I often glance down at the display just as the scanner reads my height (hence the reduction!)

T'was the Saturday before poll

ROLLING BLOG OF D-5

Up at the crack of dawn and on the road by 7.30am. Like almost every Conservative activist in the UK, I think I am now functioning purely on black coffee and adrenaline!

9.30am: First stop Paddock Wood to meet-up with Greg Clark MP, Tom Tugendhat and an amazing team of supporters who'd come to help from Tonbridge & Malling. 3,500 leaflets delivered in two hours in support of our local candidates, Elizabeth Thomas and Bill Hills. 

From left: Anne-Marie Nelson, Stuart Murray, Sophie Shrubsole, Tom Tugendhat, Matt Boughton, Chris Baldock, Howard Rogers, Jon Botten, Elizabeth Thomas, Greg Clark MP, Bill Hills, Owen Baldock and Vivian Branson .
Out of sight: Jacques Arnold and Richard Jeffryes.  

12.30pm: Elsewhere, TWs equivilent of "The Golden Girls" commence delivery of our weekend "What have the Conservatives done for us?" leaflet...

From left: Cllr Nicholas Rogers, Culverden Candidate Don Sloan and Association Chairman William Rutherford

Meanwhile, in the rural Hawkhurst & Sandhurst ward, our excellent candidate Nathan Gray and his team swamp the main roads with his poster dispay.

2.30pm: Then a dash back to Rochester to collect Dan Hannan MEP from Mark and Catriona Reckless' home, where I found Mr Hannan bouncing Baby Reckless on his knee (who said candidates don't kiss babies and pat dogs!)

3.30pm: Next stop was the Rose & Crown in Tonbridge, where we had invited Conservative to UKIP switchers to come along and hear Dan speak. About 30 people came, and were impressed with Dan's clear position on the referendum and his positive message about voting Conservative on Thursday.

Tom Tugendhat and Dan Hannan address Tonbridge swing voters

 
4.45pm: Final campaign stop of the day was Tunbridge Wells, where Dan was guest speaker at a special event in the home of Paul and Tracy Moore (local supporters) to mark the re-launch of the local Conservative Party branch in Park ward.

6.30pm: Dropped Dan off in TW town centre, where he was collected by Dee Morris to take him onto Swanley to address their annual dinner.  During the day several candidates have emailed to ask for additional leaflets or more SYWO cards so back to West Kent Towers to kick start the risograph!

10.00pm: Home, with a bag full of Indian takeaway.

I am appalled that the agent has not responded to my email...

Ring ring, ring ring......

Matt Boughton: "West Kent Conservative Campaign Headquarters, how can I help..."

My name is Councillor Fred Barchester (not real name) and I am telephoning to say that I am appalled, I shall repeat that, APPALLED, that the agent had not responded to my very urgent email sent yesterday, nor the two reminders I sent earlier today. 

(Out of interest, why do some councillors insist on calling themselves "Councillor" when none of my Lords or Knights do?)

Matt Boughton: "I am sorry, which email address did you send it to? I am sure if he had received it he would have replied..."

I sent it to westkentconservatives@gmail.org  In total I have sent about five emails, and none have received a reply. I am not too happy about this new office arrangement - totally inefficient. 

Matt Boughton: "That's the problem Mr Barchester, you have sent it to the wrong email address. It's .com not .org - that would explain it."

Well, he still hasn't replied.

Matt Boughton: "Probably because he didn't receive it."

Your just making excuses for his inefficiency. Click. 

In Search of votes in the Brighter Borough

Scheduled to be in Westminster for an evening meeting, I decided to travel up early for a change of scene. So today, rather than campaign on the doorsteps of Kent I was campaigning on the doorsteps of Battersea, in support of my friend, Matthew Plummer. Matthew is fighting Labour's most marginal seat in the Tory Flagship of Wandsworth - the Brighter Borough!

Admiring the view of the Clapham railway sidings from the fifteenth floor

"I've produced a schedule to show you all the sights of Latchemere", he announced, pulling from his panniers a wodge of dog eared canvassing sheets, the thickness of which made my blood run cold. "Off we go..."

We started in "Little India", rows of million pound terraced houses in the shadow of Clapham Junction. If any evidence were needed of the type of people we were visiting, it came from a yummy mummy who opened her door to shout after her daughter, "Anustavia, can you buy Henriette a Kinder Egg too..."

After an hour of relative true blue luxury we walked through a park to 1905 social housing estate which is now predominantly owner occupied. There we met another member of the team; a well preserved lady who was a councillor from the ward next door.  "I'm from the ward next door" she announced, with a hint of demonic self-confidence which made me flinch.   

Off we set in pursuit of the undecided.

"Hi, I'm Matthew Plummer, hi Matthew Plummer ...Matthew Plummer" repeated Matthew Plummer, glad handing his way down each road. At the neighbouring door I overheard the lady councillor's patter, "Are you new or are you blue" she shrieked at startled occupants, indicating that only someone who has just moved-in could possible not vote Conservative in Wandsworth. "Matthew Plummer, Matthew Plummer"  chirruped the candidate. My own low key canvassing style seemed quite inadequate by comparison.  Suddenly Matthew Plummer was off down the road; he had spotted two blokes sitting in a parked car and had a sudden urge to tell them that his name was "Matthew Plummer".  Whilst he was gone, Mrs Are You New or Are You Blue decided I needed reinforcements, so appeared beside me on a doorstep, where I was having a nice chat with a lady who had just moved in. "I'm from next door" she announced, to the increasingly suspicious occupant who was now confronted with a slighly deranged looking woman claiming to be her neighbour. Then "Matthew Plummer, Matthew Plummer" appeared as well. "Is there anything we can help you with ? Parking bays, uncut verges, school appeals" he said, sounding like a voiceover for a daytime TV payday loans advert. . "Are you blue", said the women from next door, before adding a new line to her repertoire, "I always say if it is not broken it does not need fixing."

At the end of the road 'Matthew Plummer, Matthew Plummer' announced that his sister was about to arrive. Apparently she had flown back from New Zealand to help with canvassing. Compared with the rest of us she looked quite normal, before she said, "I think I might be having a hypo-glycemic fit". I am pleased to say she didn't, though she did look a bit shaky.  Then another of the candidates arrived who promptly announced that her church had prayed for her that morning. "Why, what have you done?" I asked. "I haven't done anything" she said, "they're praying for a Conservative victory."  

"Right" said Matthew Plummer, with a glint in his eye. "I'm going to take you up a tower block."  Coming from leafy West Kent where some of our wards have more castles than council houses, the 15 story concrete tower made me gird my loins.  The block, however, was clean, the lift worked and even if the occupants weren't that politically engaged, there was no hostility, and from many even a grudging respect for the Council.

Towards the end, just as I was starting to flag, a man opened his door. I introduced myself and handed over the calling card. "You can count of me all the way" he said, without a moments hesitation.  "Thank you", I said. "Back in 1982 that Maggie Thatcher allowed my Mam and Dad to buy their council house, first time in their lives they ever owned a home of their own. Never looked back and we have voted for you lot ever since."

Here I was, in  the depths of Conservative Wandsworth, where the streets are clean, the verges are neat, the lifts work, and the parks are well maintained. They have the lowest Council Tax in the country, 50% cheaper than anywhere else.  And I was standing in front of a man who remembered what we had done for his family 30 years ago, and had voted for us ever since.  At that moment, I remembered why I was a Conservative and politics seemed worthwhile endeavor again.

Good luck to Matthew Plummer and all my friends fighting to keep Wandsworth Council Conservative.