General Election Day Two: A V-Sign from an Old Lady - and winning over two new voters

This is my third election as Harlow's Parliamentary Candidate and its par for the course that you get both abuse and plaudits.

Today, as I held my huge poster board sign, semi-sitting by a road side this evening, an old lady, in a smart dress coming past in the front seat of a car gave me the V-sign. Well, as they say, you can't win them all. This particular episode was somewhat unusual - in that normally the abuse comes in the shape of loud swear-words, shouted from the cars driven by very young men with very short hair cuts.

But, despite the actions of this particular senior citizen, I wasn't too upset. I generally meet abuse with humour and usually wave and smile back. Besides, there were so many motorists - including significant numbers of pensioners - honking their horns and giving the thumbs up, my morale was considerably boosted.

It was good to see that yet more business men have said that Mr Cameron is right to want to oppose Labour's National Insurance rises and unsurprising that Mr Brown said all these business men were 'deceived'. Everyone is wrong, except of course the man who gave us the biggest debt of developed countries,, lost millions selling our gold, destroyed our pensions and ruined our once bright economy.

Today, a man who never normally voted, asked me if we would reintroduce the marriage tax allowance and control immigration. I was pleased to answer yes to both. Another gentleman wanted to know what we would do about Islamist extremists. I told him that Mr Cameron had said he would drain this poison from our country. His response was that he had always been a Labour voter, but he was seriously considering voting Conservative this time. Change is in the offing.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

General election Day One : Frantic

As expected it was a really frantic day as we were all rushing around. Our first task has been to get a leaflet out to residents which involves a huge number of volunteers delivering and knocking on doors in and around Harlow. With my volunteer Agent I had to sort out final arrangements for our 'Battle Van', which we will unveil over the next day or so.

This evening I was on the A414 holding up a Bill Board alongside former Liberal Voter Colleen Morrison. The response we had from motorists was magnificent with loads of thumbs up and hoots galore. There is a real feeling that change is in the air. David Cameron's speeches today, represented the politics of hope against the politics of fear. I have a strong feeling which kind of politics will triumph.

After I was pleased to meet with a number of child-minders from the Harlow Child-minders association. We discussed everything from youth and pension facilities, the NHS, GP surgeries, child-care, and Sure Start centres. I was glad to have the chance to reassure everyone, that Conservatives will NOT be closing Sure Start centres, and will in fact be adding extra health visitors to help parents further. For some reason, Labour are putting out misleading information about our plans for Sure Start. What was that about the politics of fear?

I am looking forward to tomorrow.

P.S. For more details about Sure Start, please see HERE.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

The Whistle is almost about to be blown

So here goes. After many years, months and days campaigning, working hard to serve as Harlow's MP, the waiting is almost over. Mr Brown is to go to the Queen tomorrow and the election date will be announced for 6 May 2010.

I have always thought that politics is a little like football - in that its never over until the final whistle. It's also as unpredictable - one minute your ahead, then the other team score a goal in injury time. One week your team is up, the next week its down.

One lesson I have learnt over the years - particularly after losing by 97 votes last time - is that you can never take anything for granted. You have to fight every minute of every day to prove your worth to the Public.

That is why, it will be good to be out and about over the next few weeks all day long around the Constituency - meeting thousands of voters. Although I have been doing this week in week for a number of years, an election campaign is that much more intensive. Early starts at dawn and late bed-times beckon.

It will be exciting yet tough, it will be gruelling, and it will be somewhat nerve-wracking. But I am convinced it will be worth it in the end.

I hope to use my blog over the coming days and weeks just to set out what its like on the campaign trail. Happy reading!

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Thank you Gordon - it really is appreciated 2

Following my last Post about the kindness of Mr Gordon Brown, I thought you might appreciate the above adverts - this time from the Conservative Party and the Conservative Home Website!

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Thank you Gordon - it really is appreciated

I love the new Labour advert featuring David Cameron as Gene Hunt from Ashes to Ashes. All the more so because the series happens to be one of my favourite programmes.

Although it does seems somewhat mystifying, just a few days from the likely election announcement, why Mr Brown is so keen to help the Conservatives - by portraying our Party Leader as a hard-hitting hero cop. It is very kind of Labour to associate Mr Cameron, with one of the most popular programmes currently on TV - and much appreciated. Wouldn't it be great to see one of these Labour adverts in Harlow?

P.S. You can read more HERE.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

A most important speech: The Big Society

David Cameron yesterday gave what I believe to be one of the most important speeches he has made since becoming Conservative leader. I say this without exaggeration as I really believe the proposals contained, could help transform community renewal up and down our country.

Community activism, is a core part of Conservatism: Strengthening local communities - supporting families, neighbourhood groups, local schools, faith groups and the like, are the best way of rebuilding our broken society. In fact I have written about it HERE.

What the Conservative Leader set out yesterday, was a series of measures to transform the very nature of community activities. These include the following:

• Neighbourhood army of 5,000 full-time, professional community organisers who will be trained with the skills they need to identify local community leaders, bring communities together, help people start their own neighbourhood groups, and give communities the help they need to take control and tackle their problems. This plan is directly based on the successful community organising movement established by Saul Alinsky in the United States and has successfully trained generations of community organisers, including President Obama.
• A Big Society Bank, funded from unclaimed bank assets, which will leverage private sector investment to provide hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.
• Neighbourhood grants for the UK’s poorest areas to encourage people to come together to form neighbourhood groups and support social enterprises and charities in these poorest areas.
• Transforming the civil service into a ‘civic service’ by making regular community service a key element in civil servant staff appraisals.
• Launching an annual national ‘Big Society Day’ to celebrate the work of neighbourhood groups and encourage more people to take part in social action projects.
• Providing new funding to support the next generation of social entrepreneurs, and helping successful social enterprises to expand and succeed."
  
  

All these proposals, alongside local devolution, elected police commissioners, parental right to set up their own schools, public service co-operatives and local referenda on key areas such as finance and housing, will do much to put the punch into community power. They mean a shift from Government diktat down to communities.

Potentially, some of the most fundamental shifts of power from Government to society, since Margaret Thatcher devolved economic power from the state to consumers.

You can read Mr Cameron's Speech HERE and read The Big Society Policy Document HERE.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com

Ever wondered how our hard-earned taxes our spent?

Ever wondered how our hard-earned Taxes our spent by Mr G. Brown?. Click HERE.

P.S. Petrol Taxes went up today.