Off to Kent today to support Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay who will beat Nigel Farage by 5% according to yesterdays poll

 

Craig is an active local candidate who is going to win in South Thanet. His website is here: http://www.craigmackinlay.com/

I am campaigning with Craig this afternoon in Ramsgate and then speaking at a Dinner for him in North Foreland tonight. I am much looking forward to it. I do around 40 speaking engagements a year, mostly in Northumberland but as far afield as Aberdeen to Argyll, London this week, before Kent today and Newcastle in 2 weeks.

It is Not a good time for South Thanet Ukippers at the moment:
1. A poll in the last 24 hours of South Thanet show Farage losing the general election: he is 5% points behind Craig our Conservative candidate: "Ukip are five points behind the Tories in Thanet South (34-29), where Farage is standing, with Labour just three behind." More details here:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/11/farage-struggling-and-clegg-danger-losing-seat-ashcroft-poll-shows

2. Yesterday the South Thanet Ukippy team wrongly identified Westminster Catholic Cathedral as a Mosque, allowing the BBC and the nation to point out the error of their ways: the story is genuinely worth a read: everyone makes mistakes but the timing is bad.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/11257761/Ukip-mercilessly-mocked-over-Westminster-Cathedral-mosque-Twitter-gaffe.html

Craig is the real deal: have a read here and you will see why:
http://www.souththanetconservatives.org.uk/craig-mackinlay-prospective-parliamentary-candidate-ppc

Second visit to Rochester today - this is a by election that can be won for sure

Today I went to Rochester. It is a town steeped in the history of Dickens, from the Bull Inn in Rochester High Street, where Mr Pickwick and his companions stayed, and where Dickens stayed himself, to the old Rochester High Street and Restoration House, where Miss Havisham lives in Great Expectations.
When I popped down last week to Kent I canvassed in the town and spoke to voters who were planning to vote in many ways - some for several Conservatives, one Lib Dem, who opened his front door dressed only in a pair of boxers, one Ukip and several Labour, including two teachers who voted Labour in 2010 but were unimpressed by Miliband. Budget reductions and By Elections make for anger at the world and governments in general, and I accept that there is a genuine anti politics / anti tough times Ukip vote here in the Medway. 
Today was a little different. I genuinely feel that this will be a very close fought battle and that the Conservative Candidate, Kelly Tolhurst, can defeat Mark Reckless, a man who sadly has lied and lied to his colleagues about his intentions; Mark was also barely weeks ago fully accepting that a Referendum will only be obtained [however one wishes to vote post the negotiations with Europe] by supporting the Conservatives. All that seems to have gone out the window in a vanity trip. 

The picture is of Restoration House in Rochester which was the House Dickens used for the home of Miss Haversham and Estelle. It is 100 yards from the Conservative campaign centre in Rochester. I did not go round as I felt that now was not the time! But I picked up Great Expectations after last weeks visit and a Dickens quote made me appreciate the nature of the struggle against a party that is so xenophobic, extreme and unfit to govern. 

“No varnish can hide the grain of the wood; and that the more varnish you put on, the more the grain will express itself.”
― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
The Guardian makes good reading as to why this is a party I will happily fight robustly against in Rochester:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/22/ukip-needs-polish-rightwinger-money-talks

Conservative Gains in Northumberland

Results as follows: in west northumberland count as decided in Hexham today
Bellingham: Conservative win for John Riddle
Corbridge: Conservative win for Jean Fearon
Haltwhistle: Conservative win for Ian Hutchinson
Hexham East; Conserative win for Cath Homer [new candidate]
Hexham West: Conservative win for Colin Cessford [new candidate]
Hexham Central and Acomb: Conservative win for Terry Robson
Humshaugh: Conservative win for Rupert Gibson [new candidate]
Ponteland East: Conservative win for Eileen Armstrong
Ponteland West: Conservative win for Veronica Jones
Ponteland South: Conservative win for Peter Jackson
Ponteland North - Conservative win when Richard Dodd elected unopposed by any other party - very bizarre!
South Tynedale: Conservative win for Colin Horncastle
Haydon and Hadrian: Lib Dem hold
Prudhoe North and South: Labour wins
Bywell & Stocksfield: Independent wins

I would make 4 observations from this election -
- Great results in the 3 tough Labour / Conservative fights of Hexham Central, Hexham East and Haltwhistle for our Conservative councillors. On a national swing all should have gone to Labour but all 3 were held by a hundred plus votes or more.
- Lib Dem vote declined everywhere. Not as bad as South Shields last night where they got 1%, but in Prudhoe North it was a Lib Dem seat before this election and their candidate this time did not get 10% of the vote. A good hold for the Lib Dems in Haydon and Hadrian, but the hard work of former ambulance man Colin Cessford knocking on every door for over a year paid off in Hexham West. No canddiate has worked harder this last year.
- Ponteland saw a failure by Labour to put up any Labour candidate in any of the 4 county seats, and only 1 liberal in Pont South, leaving 2 fights in east and west against Ukip on their own, which both of our star ladies won by a landslide. Ukip made little impact here. One of their candidates told me unequivocally and robustly last week that he would be a councillor on Friday, and then only polled just over 10%.
- across the county the labour party have clearly made progress but the Conservatives have also won new seats in Cramlington, Morpeth North and Bamburgh.

My thanks to all the candidates who worked so very hard, including the losers on the day. Noone left anything in the locker.
My congratulations to the winners from other parties - Tony Reid, Eileen Burt, Anne dale, Paul Kelly and Alan Sharp - all fought good campaigns. My thanks to all the council and electoral staff, the police and everyone involved in the count. These events take a lot of managing / effort. My final thanks to all the supporters, families and friends who gave up so much time / effort for their candidates - but most of all my thanks to everyone who participated. We are lucky to have the vote - it was good that you used it.
For my part, my phone is off - I am going to be sleeping a lot this weekend!