After Tony Blair’s prolonged departure as PM, the suddenness of his quitting as MP took many people by surprise. Not least the Green Party.
We should have known better of course and had a contingency plan tucked away somewhere. As it is, our campaign to contest the election – the first time we have stood in Sedgefield – sprang into life on the evening of Blair’s final goodbye to the Trimdon Labour Club.
The sentiment of many of Sedgefield’s voters sums up the mood of the North East: Tony Blair used Sedgefield for his own ends and his hasty retirement proves that he had no more commitment to the good folk of Sedgefield than he had to the traditional values of the Labour Party.
Knackered by the end of the first full week of campaigning, my main thought was how Tony Blair, even in retirement, had conspired to screw up my summer.
As happens in most parliamentary by-elections, a lot of voters were tired of the constant knocking at their doors by the 11 candidates and their supporters by the end of the second week.
Add in the deluge of leaflets – including one from the Green Party – and despair often turns to anger. For someone who believes in the high ideals of democracy this is a frustrating mood to encounter on the doorsteps, but I can understand it.
One result is a peculiarly high level of unanswered doors. Either everyone is out working, or they are spending their money in the shops and fuelling the consumption boom. There is a third possibility that is revealed if you step back from an unanswered front door, stand really still for a couple of minutes, and watch for a rustle of the blinds as weary electors check that we have moved on.
Another frustration has been the lack of any hot issues. The grey parties have got themselves in a tizz over the state of Newton Aycliff’s dilapidated shopping centre and all promise to revitalise it. But there is little real concern about the state of the roads, the schools or the hospitals.
For a largely rural constituency that was once decimated by the closure of the coal mines, there is considerable wealth in Sedgefield. I am constantly amazed by the number of 4x4s parked on the driveways of very smartly dressed former council houses.
We have been working hard to take the Green message – a clarion call to tackle climate change and build a more sustainable society – to voters. How successful we have been, from a standing start, will become clear in the early hours of Friday 20th.
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