Last evening I spent a very enjoyable evening speaking to Erith & Thamesmead Conservatives at a fundraiser for their very energetic PPC Colin Bloom. It took place in an excellent Tandoori in Belvedere. I'm more of a meat and two veg man, but I have to say it was the best Indian food I have ever tasted.
It was a challenging environment in which to make a speech as there was a lot of background noise from the kitchen, which was quite distracting. I had also forgotten to put on my glasses so it was impossible to read the few scant notes I had made on a piece of paper on the table. What I find is that every time I make a speech, I learn something new. Anyway, it all seemed to go quite well.
Colin and I then took questions. He passed me all the difficult ones! It was good to see Simon Marcus at the event. Simon used to work for me at Politico's and is now the party's candidate in Barking, standing against Margaret Hodge and Nick Griffin. What a way to lose your political virginity!
Colin has a 6,000 Labour majority to overturn. His is exactly the sort of seat the party needs to gain in order to get a good working majority. He clearly has a very active and dedicated group of activists helping him and I hope he gets the help he deserves from the neighbouring Conservative seats.
Anyway, my next two Tory speaking events are this Friday in Thanet South for Laura Sandys, and next Friday at the University of Southampton. Hope to see one or two of you there.
You won't see anyone if you forget your glasses again. What does your CV say - 'Iain is an accomplished public speaker, '?
ReplyDeleteoh ... :-)
Perhaps your visit could have been more widely promoted. I live here and was not aware of it?
ReplyDeleteBut than I am not a party member. Mr Austin is standing down at the next election, but the Tories will have an uphill struggle in this seat, which has always voted labour in General Elections, despite putting a Tory Council in power last time around.
The notional Labour majority in Erith & Thamesmead is 9870 according to Rallings & Thrasher, not the 6000 you quote. It's number 240 on the Tory target list so winning it would imply a Tory majority of 250, rather more than the "good working majority" you talk about.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I see the word Erith I recall Linda Smith's remark that it "isn't twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham"
ReplyDeleteIain
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for coming, it was really appreciated. Thank you for taking all the tough questions too!
UKViewer. It was such a popular event, we didn't need to open the event up for more than just our activists. With hindisght, we could have sold three times as many tickets.
If you want to get in touch, you can contact me at colin@colinbloom.co.uk