Yesterday I spent most of the evening out, but when I came home I found we had some visitors: our candidate for the County elections in Broadfield (Jim McGough) and Jayne’s running mate for the Pound Hill/Maidenbower seat (Eugene Sully). We had a bit of a chat about this and that, and Jim left behind a leaflet he had from the Tories about their candidate in Broadfield.

It is a bit of a dull read. The Tories seem to be allergic to commas: the front page (an entire A4 page) has only one comma in it. This is acheived by a mixture of very short sentences and longer ones which are just that little bit harder to read through having nothing to break them up. Its not really a failure of grammar – just a failure of style.

The Broadfield-specific part of the leaflet is the back page, dominated by a profile of their candidate, Marcella Head. The second paragraph starts “Having a large family of my own…” That is some understatement! The woman has had eleven children, which is surely excessive by anyone’s standards. Perhaps our local services, not to mention child benefit system, would be less pressurised if people like this didn’t feel the need to over-populate the place. One of our biggest problems locally is the shortage of housing, particularly for young adults. The Labour party wants to try and provide housing: the Tories want none of it. Their leader said in the Town Hall a couple of years ago that nobody in town has the automatic right for their children to live in the same town as their parents. (Thats easy for him to say – he still lives with his parents in his 30s). I just find it hard to believe that someone in her circumstances can be a member of a party with such policies as the Tories.

The last paragraph states “I have enjoyed representing Broadfield people in this role [Borough councillor]” How has she done that? As far as I can see, she and her Tory colleague have totally ignored the part of the ward where I live. All I have heard about her performance is complaints. I will admit that they are very good at getting in the local paper for one reason or another.

If I needed any incentive to get out and knock on more doors and deliver more leaflets myself this was surely it.