After a poor night, regretting that the Huntingdon SLD constituency's efforts in the Bury Election campaign had been poorly organised and then my cough and throat were painful and irritating which kept me awake. A hair cut in St Neots on another fine and sunny day and the weather seems to be set fair for the election run-in.
To the building societies to update my pass books and note the latest interest rates for my year-end financial figures and then to specify the gardening job before resuming work to help Jack and Carole with their Bury campaign. Their community is very divided socially and over the Playing Field dispute. Then over to Great Paxton to help Percy canvas the village for a second time after we had delivered our third leaflet, unfortunately encountering our Sundance livery owner Roland and Mrs Smith in the village delivering their other leaflet!
The news today was of an old Shackleton RAF surveillance aircraft crashing into an island off of the west coast of Scotland with the loss of all of the crew of 10 airman. In Bangladesh, freak thunderstorms with red clouds and scorching 60mph winds collapsed houses killing at least 15 and injuring several hundreds, some of whom were taken to hospital with burns.
Though to bed early, I did not have a very restful night. My mind was churning over with the recriminations of the Bury Election campaign where the Huntingdon SLD constituency's efforts had been poorly organised and then later in the night my cough and throat were painful and irritating which kept me awake. Eventually Diana woke up and got the morning drinks and then I felt tired again but got myself up and dressed for breakfast of toasted and buttered bread. I had time to sort out the conservatory before I left with Diana to get my hair cut in St Neots.
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It was another fine and sunny day and similar weather is forecast for the next few days which is good as far as the election is concerned. Whilst in town, I visited the building societies to update my pass books and note the latest interest rates so that I can complete my year-end financial affairs. On my return, I worked a little on the gardener's job specification. My idea is to give this to potential applicants so that they would be aware of what would be expected of them. After lunch, I drove over to Warboys and collected the flag-boards from Jack Taylor and then went on to Bury to drop them off at Carole's house and collect her for canvassing. We went up to Wistow and canvassed many of the houses there. The reception was quite good with many promises of votes from people in the older council housing, but a pretty solid wall of resistance from the larger houses. It seems quite a polarised community. Amongst those living there were the Chairman and other members of the Parish Council who were quite indignant at our FOCUS story on the playing field. It seems a typical situation that the Parish Council is at odds with what the village is interested in. At least we got more offers to have our flag-boards in the gardens of those who are supporting us.
Rather a rush home afterwards and then a very quick bite to eat before shaving and getting back over to Great Paxton to help Percy canvas the village for a second time. We had delivered our third leaflet, an A3 targeted at Great Paxton, and were canvassing in the wake of it. The reception was pleasingly good, though it had provoked a response from the other side. In fact, both Roland and Mrs Smith were in the village delivering this other leaflet and they met me canvassing and said "Hello". This was a bit embarrassing for both of us as we know each other quite well from the livery of Sundance. I went back to Percy's house afterwards for a couple of cool drinks and then came home to bed quite tired and with my throat and chest giving me trouble. The news today was of an old Shackleton RAF surveillance aircraft crashing into an island off of the west coast of Scotland with the loss of all of the crew of 10 airman. In Bangladesh, freak thunderstorms with red clouds and scorching 60mph winds collapsed houses killing at least 15 and injuring several hundreds, some of whom were taken to hospital with burns. The national picture for the Tories in the run up to Thursdays elections looks very grim.