Monday
Canvassing with a team in rain/sunshine/rain/sunshine. A fantastic guy in his teens joins our team to help, as his family had been at a talk I gave last week. A reminder that the biggest problem for the youth vote is that… they don’t vote. They talk online a lot, but their power at the ballot box is dwarfed by the older vote which reliably turns out.
So if younger voters want their concerns (YIMBYism not least) considered, then vote – and get involved!
After a minor flurry of hostile interest over the weekend, I post the relevant extracts from my 2005 book (!) on X so the context can be seen. People seemingly… couldn’t be less interested, which I suppose is reassuring.
I record a short video for parents affected by Labour’s planned tax hike on school fees. There are dozens of independent schools in Barnet, over twenty of them Jewish – with many parents who aren’t at all wealthy making sacrifices to secure their children the religious education their families need, who will be hit by the plan.
When my activists get in touch to say that the video has made it independently (no pun intended) to Whatsapp groups they’re in, I know that it’s been a good one.
In the evening I speak to a regularly-convened online discussion group. I was happy to be asked, but had no clue as to the scale of it when accepting… 200 people are online for the discussion!
Think about things like that when next someone moans about the internet and social media: here’s a remarkably diverse set of people interested in politics and their community, empowered to discuss things with others from the comfort of their own homes.
Tuesday
Mike Freer, the former MP, and I spend some time on handover issues and take a meeting together with a local community leader. This is the kind of thing that is often overlooked in our system. Voters are inevitably frustrated if a longstanding issue in the patch is treated as if wholly new by the incoming MP. So this as part of one’s democratic due diligence… whether I win or not!
Wednesday
Canvassing! And in the evening, a house meeting. Fifty people gather in the home of a constituent keen to ensure that my message is heard in the local community. They give me a good old grilling!
Candidates should lead from the front, and being at such events means that one can’t help to run a canvassing or delivering session. So I’m really lucky that our past mayoral candidate – and longtime friend – Susan Hall steps in to help our team out knocking up this evening whilst I’m elsewhere.
Which prompts a thought. Political parties aren’t just brands: they’re tribal groups with institutional loyalty built up over many years. Lacking this hinterland is one of the challenges for insurgent newcomer parties, no matter how high-profile they may be.
Thursday
We record some content for videos for the rest of the campaign. I am very lucky to have talented and dedicated volunteers helping me.
Oh, and I mute a few Whatsapp groups. Candidates (and others) just love a gossip. Get out and knock on a door!
Friday
I visit Artsdepot, a community hub for the arts in the constituency. As with so many institutions in our country, Covid – and what we did during it – hit the centre hard. My parents both taught drama and the arts have always been important to me. More Bach and Mozart than atonal, plinky-plonk avant-garde nonsense for me… but then, of course, I am a conservative!
Our Get Out The Postal Vote cards have arrived, so GOTPV will be the focus for the next few days. More people will vote by post in this election than ever before – a point seemingly missed by many political commentators. The fixation on “polling day” is a natural one, but in the current environment it’s more like polling month.
Saturday
Double delivery session for GOT(P)V. In the rain/ sun/rain. I’m sure we will be told in due course that this was the hottest June ever, which will be odd given that many of us have turned the heating on. Rupert Matthews, our Police and Crime Commissioner in Leicestershire and Rutland, uncomplainingly delivers several bundles in the belting rain, fortunately so festooned in wet weather gear as if venturing into a tropical rainforest.
Meanwhile I proudly sign up to the #UkraineMustWin campaign. The extent to which this has slipped off the political radar is terrible. I have loved the time I have spent in Kyiv and I think often of the bravery of those fighting for freedom and to repel an utterly unjust invasion.
Perhaps it’s not a vote winner in the UK in 2024. But that’s not all that being a candidate is about.
Sunday
While our excellent team led by local councillors deliver a full action day in Golders Green, Mike and I do some street stalls across the community together; a high-visibility handover! The number of people who come to give him their heartfelt thanks was plainly rather moving for him – and showed me what shoes I have to fill, if I succeed.
And, lest people forget that candidates are people and not just robotic legal necessities in a campaign, I clock off earlier than usual, for a family event; it’s my first Father’s Day as a father, and my fourth without my Dad.
That this is the way of the world makes things no easier. Time does not heal all wounds. The juxtaposition is actually rather painful. I know how much Dad would have loved my son.
But whilst, for me, the rawness of this is not diminished, I find that there is also happiness and hope for the future this day, knowing how much I owe him, in seeing so many of my father’s qualities in my boy.
