The campaign is now drawing to a close, many postal votes have already been cast, a few more minor skirmishes and it will all be over. Let’s hope we don’t have to do it all again soon or my keyboard will need replacing, as will my shoes.
A brief count of the blue rosettes in the South Holland Centre hustings on Thursday was quite enough to forecast the result of any poll. The Tories are good at PR and getting out activists and members and thus were able to pack the audience.
We did not even attempt to do so, merely informing members of the debate and needing to save our powder. It was a good and entertaining evening, well chaired but in no way a representation of opinion in the district.
The actual campaign so far, given the vast gap in cash and resources between the Conservatives and everyone else, is going very well. Most residents are not politics anoraks or activists and many will make up their minds at the last minute. Sadly a huge number won’t even bother to vote.
Any organisation that is dominated by a single party is sooner or later going to have problems, just as the Tories had at Lincoln during the Speechley affair.
Judging from the utter fiasco and unnecessary expense of the battle over our library service and the Red Lion project, they are still having a hard time admitting they make mistakes. I have difficulty understanding people who criticise others when the recent history of the party they support is so much worse.
Our council and parliamentary campaigns in South Holland are run as closely together as practical but they are not the same, different skill sets being required for the candidates in each election. The Tory campaigns are also interlinked and are more interdependent. UKIP are a grass roots movement. The Conservatives are a top down one.
One of these elections is about who governs our nation and how much influence UKIP will have over the winners. It’s not a by-election, we are not choosing a social worker. This is far more important than the fate of a single government minister. In short the choice before us is if to become part of a federal Europe, a star on someone else’s flag or to revert to an independent sovereign state that makes its own laws and controls its own borders.
It really is that stark.
The bulk of the Conservative Party have already decided they wish to remain in – a handful of rebels and a lot of false election promises can’t disguise that.
In May you will have a very rare opportunity to express your opinion on the performance of your council and the government, in a way they can’t ignore or overrule. I urge you to use it, by voting UKIP in all three elections.