Saturday, May 05, 2007

 

It's 39, stupid!

Some of you may have guessed from the lack of recent blogging that I have been pounding the pavements in the run up to this week's elections.

It couldn't have been more worth it.

You may know that last May, Sheffield once again bucked the trend of national Labour decline by holding all of their 44 seats. We, however, had lost our Central ward seat to the Greens and had been reduced to 35 Councillors - our lowest total since 1996. (We were to be reduced temporarily to 34 a few months prior to the election by the sad death of Cllr. Andrew White.)

I had also gone through the emotional wringer of sitting through a double recount, near-punch up and eventual 49-vote defeat for our hardworking and superb candidate Denise Reaney in Gleadless Valley.

Sitting in our party-cum-wake over a mournful pint, I decided that whatever happened, I wasn't going to feel like this next year.

Luckily, I quickly made friends with our defeated candidate for Hillsborough, Steve Ayris - a man I've since found to be not only politically astute but affable, thoughtful and extremely hardworking.

Now I'm a relatively recent recruit to the activist fold - having literally walked in to Nick Clegg's campaign office off the street in 2005 - so I was particularly surprised when I ended up as Steve's campaign manager and agent!

I will write about the campaign in more detail later, but suffice it to say that after a year's hard work and late nights - both from us and a small army of Councillors, old friends, new friends, family, co-workers, sympathetic locals and fiancees (thankyou Katie), we did it!

We were certainly helped by a catastrophic Labour blunder - a decision to close a popular and successful local school - but make no mistake, overturning a 215-vote defeat to a 491-vote victory in one election is no mean feat.

I also have to give a lot of credit to a Hillsborough population who refused to lie down and take it. In the end, they turned up to the polling station in droves to give Labour a good kicking, giving us the fourth-highest turnout in the city in the process.

Labour's faces at the count were ashen - not so much the defeated candidate (who was gracious in defeat, and had seen it coming a mile off), but the remaining two Councillors who may have seen the writing on the wall!

The eventual fall of two other Labour seats - and their subsequent loss of the Council - was the icing in the cake for me.

This year, my pint after the count tasted a lot sweeter. It may have something to do with being able to toast:
Cheers!

Comments:

queipt The best blog you have!

 
sPIzrK Thanks to author.

 
actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

 
Good job!

 
actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

 
actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

 
Thanks to author.

 
Magnific!

 
Good job!

 
Wonderful blog.

 
Thanks to author.

 
XsEtRe write more, thanks.

 
Thanks to author.

 
Wonderful blog.

 
Good job!

 
Wonderful blog.

 
Hello all!

 
Hello all!

 
Wonderful blog.

 
Thanks to author.

 
Wonderful blog.

 
Please write anything else!

 
Hello all!

 
actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

 
What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?

 
Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.

 
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!

 
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!

 
C++ should have been called B

 
Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.

 
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!

 
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

 
What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?

 
What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?

 
When there's a will, I want to be in it.

 
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies

 
Beam me aboard, Scotty..... Sure. Will a 2x10 do?

 
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

 
What is a free gift ? Aren't all gifts free?

 
Hello all!

 
Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.

 
Energizer Bunny Arrested! Charged with battery.

 
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

 
I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing!

 
Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!

 
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

 
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

 
When there's a will, I want to be in it.

 
A lot of people mistake a short memory for a clear conscience.

 
Wonderful blog.

 
Magnific!

 
Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.

 
640K ought to be enough for anybody. - Bill Gates 81

 
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.

 
640K ought to be enough for anybody. - Bill Gates 81

 
Thanks to author.

 
Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!

 
Nice Article.

 
640K ought to be enough for anybody. - Bill Gates 81

 
Thanks to author.

 
Oops. My brain just hit a bad sector.

 
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

 
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies

 
When there's a will, I want to be in it.

 
Good job!

 
Save the whales, collect the whole set

 
Save the whales, collect the whole set

 
A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

 
A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

 
Magnific!

 
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

 
Thanks to author.

 
Nice Article.

 
The gene pool could use a little chlorine.

 
Beam me aboard, Scotty..... Sure. Will a 2x10 do?

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

Printed (hosted) by Blogger. Published and promoted by S Ayris on behalf of J Taylor (Liberal Democrat), all at 7 Park Grange Croft, Sheffield S2 3QJ. The views expressed are those of the party, not the service provider.

Blogging Liberal Britain
Since 2006