Election notes

Before I close off the Election Notes series, I have a few more posts to make when I have a moment. Yesterday, I finally cleared some snaps off my phone and put them on flickr. You can find the set here. Here are several of my favourites.

I thought this graphic might be interesting to political geeks out there. It’s the visitors to nancyplatts.com (Brighton Pavilion’s Labour candidate) in the run up to the general election. I’ve taken the numbers off: consider this indicative. I didn’t really know what to expect trafficwise but this is quite useful and entirely as you might

Anyone who cares about democracy is in favour of anything that breathes life into politics. That could be electoral reform, Twitter, public meetings, canvassing, men dressed in chicken suits. There are actually lots of ways of encouraging discussion and debate. All are good. I’m just not sure about hustings. I’m certain that they don’t deserve

The postal votes are out there now. In Brighton Pavilion, something like 10000 voters will be voting postally. It’s astonishing. It’s also tantalising to wonder what those ballots cast could tell us but that must elude us. The postal vote packs went out last week and a great percentage have been returned already. It does

I walk down a street and the first thing I wonder is how the doors are numbered. I haven’t taken a go on Facebook Scrabble for 4 days. I’ve skipped my beloved pub quiz several times and that NEVER happens. Red garments are being worn more. Blue and green ones. Not so much. My jacket

As any activist knows, canvassing isn’t really about persuasion (although it does sometimes turn into a discussion, and quite right too). It’s predominantly a data collecting exercise. Where is your support? Make sure you solidify it. Get your people out on polling day. That’s why I love a Tory on the doorstep. I thank them

A friend asked me the other day: “I don’t want a Tory MP. So who’s telling the truth: Labour or Green?” He was referring to the Labour and Green leaflets that are going out and both claim to be the only ones who can beat the Conservatives here. It’s a fair question and the answer

The retiring MP for Brighton Pavilion, David Lepper, is a good man. I’ve told him off about voting for the Digital Economy Bill. Fear not. But he worked hard to get to parliament and there are very few folk who’d say he hasn’t been a great local MP since 1997. David has been clearing out

It’s one of those mysteries: why isn’t Brighton and Hove a Liberal Democrat stronghold? Next door Lewes has had the services of the extremely diligent Norman Baker since 1997 but any Seagulls fan will spit at the very mention of his name. Brighton got its first MP in 1832* with the Great Reform Act (which