Under the Clock

William Troy MM - Deputy, States of Jersey 1957 Campaign Advert.

As I read the 6 leaflets posted through my letter box today - making a total of 38 for the by-election period - and digested Chris Lloyd's bye-election review in The Northern Echo (the political editor is renowned for his detailed observations) I concluded that Hustings are not what they were but then a lot of things in the political world are not what they were.

The faulty chimes of the tower clock in Newton Aycliffe market proved a backdrop to the closeing efforts of the candidates and their many supporters and well spun messages in the Sedgefield by-election yesterday.

Once upon a time political campaigning consisted of one simple message no spin and one simple leaflet usually delivered by hand to the voters doorstep by the candidate themselves (see image of my Garandfather above). There would be one lively hustings meeting usually held in a community hall in each constituency. At times of by-elections, in the past, hustings meetings were the focus point of the candidates campaigns and many a political career was made or lost in packed vibrant meetings of local voters.

On Monday night I attended a well organised but poorly attended meeting in the Village Hall in Sedgefield. The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) did their best (though notifying the local media would have helped) to fuel proper political debate which was attended by 40 or so, with only one actual local voter, myself !

Some notable comments were made by the three candidates that made the effort to turn up and address the meeting on the stage under an old clock whose hands were frozen at midnight.

UKIP has apparently joined the 'Illegal (Iraq) War' bandwagon; I do not understand how a party that promotes National Sovereignty can reject a unilateral right to go to war. Anyway Toby Horton pointed out that last time he stood for election in Sedgefield (1983) he was pro ''Europe'' and Blair was anti. What a funny old political world.

The Green candidate promoted a basic state communist style citizens allowance payment to all adults regardless of means; apparently they have a team of 10 Economist working on the policy. That will of course mean that 100 different options will be presented to the Green Leadership team. The Green man on the platform made some very unkind comments about the 'engine room' (Businesses) of the UK economy.

Two million calls from the public are unanswered by HM Customs and Revenue per year a union rep told the meeting; strange I thought that so many folk want to talk to a tax person. Perhaps it was a few tenacious tax payers trying to get a rebate.

The Lib Dem candidates trousers and socks appeared to have had an argument judging by their distance apart. Though the 16-1 (William Hill) runner sounded confident and well briefed, clearly a good each way bet.

All three candidates agreed that the constituency was in need of a full time MP; whatever the result it will be a gain to the voters of Sedgefield who in effect have not had a MP for 13 years.

BNP were banned from the meeting (quite rightly so) Labour and Tory Candidate banned themselves (wrongly so). Apparently the Official Loony Candidate got lost which was a pity.

In the Pub afterwards I was asked what I thought about the campaigning I could not resist the retort that ''it could only get better''.


Peter Troy
Sedgefield

From the Editor's Cottage

If points were being awarded for effort the Lib Dem campaign team in the Sedgefield Constituency would be at the top of the list.

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Thirteen distinctive Lib Dem leaflets with prospective MP Greg Stone's mug shot prominently placed add to the carbon foot print of the high profile by-election. The Bright Orange Lib Dem Posters are everywhere some replacing Labour posters which were masterly affixed to telegraph polls and fences in the early days of the campaign.
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Clearly Corporate Bookmakers William Hill are impressed since they have reduced the odds on a Greg Stone being first past the post from 33/1 to 16/1.

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A total of thirty two leaflets have landed my on my cottage door mat in rural Sedgefield during the past three days persuading me to vote Labour or Conservative or Lib Dem or UKIP or for one of the many fringe candidates. Not one candidate has yet ventured up the mile long single track to canvas my rural mostly farming neighbours.

All but the UKIP candidate are focused and mumbling on about the issue of the crumbling 1960's Newton Aycliffe shopping centre; even Labour are accepting that Blair is a part of the problem. Never before has such a dreadful shopping centre had so much press and political attention. One camera team from the USA last Wednesday asked where the nearest restaurant was, I suggested the ancient City of Durham some 25 miles away or if they liked squashed peas and traditional English real ale The Dunn Cow in Sedgfield (15 miles down the road) which once visited by George W Bush.

Labour is on a very sticky neglected wicket with the concrete decaying new town, which is why Labour Candidate Phil Wilson went big on ''Honouring a pit tradition'' last week. He achieved much publicity when he spoke at the unfurling of the Deaf Hill Colliery Banner. Never mind that the Colliery closed 40 years ago or that the new banner was made in far away Suffolk, or that most of the new jobs in the constituency are IT orientated or retail Mr Wilson sounded like a traditional Labour MP; his honouring of Labours traditional values did not fall on deaf ears.

Graham Robb the Conservative candidate was canvassing in the glare of the press photographers with Party Chairman Caroline Spelman. My old friend the Deputy Party Chairman Michael Bates (previously a North East Conservative MP) was raising cane over access to the spanking new high tec Net Park a business centre that according to Mr Blair represents ''the future of Sedgefield and the North East.'' Apparently John Hutton Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise toured the impressive development with the local Labour candidate but when the Conservatives asked to do the same a few days before they were turned down.

Meanwhile Toby Horton, the UKIP candidate and latter day eurorealist was trying to persuade voters that they had a ''once-in-a lifetime opportunity to send a message to the new Prime Minister about the biggest issue of the day''. He states in his literature and in The Northern Echo that Gordon Brown travels to Lisbon in October '' to ratify the deal Tony Blair agreed on the future of European Union just days before he stepped down.''

Toby should know better - the issue is that the British people need to demand a referendum before the UK Parliament ratifies the new treaty at the end of the year once the heads of Government of all 27 EU member states of the 'EU Empire' have agreed the details at their conference in October. The issue is that the people must vote and reject the treaty before the UK Parliament votes for ratification. If the importance of a referendum is not made very clear it should not be any wonder voters will prefer to concern themselves with the state of the local shopping centre rather than by whom and how we are to be governed.

Thus is how candidates now campaign.

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Out and about in Sedgfield

From the Editor's Sunday Brunch Table.

Yesterday I was out and about in the Parliamentary Constituency of Sedgefield to experience the campaigning activities of the candidates in the much publicised by-election. Not a Green, English Democrats, Official Monster Raving Loony, Independent or a British National Party (thank goodness for the latters absence) in sight. That is not to say the campaigning teams were about just that I did not see them.

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I did hear the voice (via a megaphone) of the LibDems; but I failed to make eye ball contact. The Liberal Democrats are taking this election very seriously indeed. They have sent the team attributed with engineering their victory in the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election to lead the campaign of their candidate Greg Stone. Mr Stone, a councillor in Newcastle, is urging voters to send Labour a message “after years of neglect”.

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Labour faces something of a test in the by-election for Tony Blair’s former seat to head off local anger over the failure to rebuild the constituency’s biggest town centre. A serious mood of revolt is abroad among folk in Newton Aycliffe, a drab early 1960's settlement with a crumbling concrete shopping centre where promises of a new modern town centre have been blocked by rows with developers and Labour Councillors.

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Labour, long time the ruling local party in an area once dominated by coal mining, is hoping the decision to call a snap election will leave too little time for local anger to mobilise around one rival candidate, but try as I might I could not see any sign of the Labour team yesterday, perhaps they are staying under cover except when their are news persons are about

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A former Newton Aycliffe shopkeeper, Paul Gittins, is standing as an Independent in the by-election. The high profile individual has already commenced his campaign in the press if not yet on the door step.

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The Conservatives, with just one council seat in Sedgefield, have a weaker base but their candidate, Graham Robb, a public relations man, is also focusing on the failure to regenerate Newton Aycliffe town centre, proposing a public-private company is set up to rebuild it.

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All the campaigners apart from the Labour team threatens to embarrass Mr Blair with suggestions that he neglected his constituency during his ten years as Prime Minister.

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Even the Labour candidate concedes Blair's neglect of the constituency is a factor in this election. “It is pointless saying there is not a problem because there is,” Mr Wilson told The Times on Thursday as he knocked on doors of council houses in the ex-mining village of Ferryhill; in the full gaze of the press. “To be fair to Tony, he has been pulling people together on this for the last few months. People’s frustration was starting to show with himself as well. What I want to do now is take up the cudgels and sort this out.”

The prize for the most high profile candidate on Saturday goes to Toby Horton the UKIP candidate who was quite literally flying the flag for the cause of leaving the EU. An issue, incidentally, that Tony Blair supported back in 1983 when he was first elected as 31 year old MP.

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This Blog will give daily reports on the Sedgefield by-election. Journalists - particularly from overseas who require local briefings should contact the Editor on: 01740 629433.

From The Editor's 'Back Yard'

On Friday along with some 50,000 or so other voters in the Parliamentary Constituency of Sedgefield I received a letter from my former MP, one Tony Blair.

'Dear Friends' it starts, blooming cheek but typical of Blair's attempts at informality.

The final paragraph of his cheesy farewell letter thanked me ''for all that I have given him over the past 24 years''. Well over the past 4 years I have given Mr Blair a number of letters. Some were posted, some faxed, others were emailed to the Right Honourable Gentleman on a range of local, national and international issues. In reply I received a number of standard letters from Secretaries telling me that my communications would be shown to Mr Blair when he was next in the constituency. Whether Tony Blair was in fact ever shown my letter or whether he chose to ignore my points and questions (some people do) I do not know. I never heard another word.

I have replied to Mr Blair's letter, care of my Secretary, thanking him for his communication and informing him that I shall reply to his successor about a range of outstanding local issues in the fullness of time. Whatever the result of the Sedgefield by-election in 10 days time Sedgefield will gain an MP; that will be no bad thing.

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Sedgefield By-Election Latest

As we mentioned in the previous post the UKIP candidate for the Sedgefield by-election is businessman Toby Horton who lives near Northallerton in North Yorkshire. Mr. Horton, who contested Sedgefield against Tony Blair in 1983 as a Conservative, was for three years the chairman of William Hague's constituency. He joined UKIP last year claiming that he had not left the Conservative Party but that it had left him.

"In 1983", said Mr. Horton yesterday , "I fought against Tony Blair as a pro the European Community as at the time he was a strong Euro-sceptic. Obviously Mr. Blair and I have completely reversed our positions on Europe since then." Well this is the era of change.

Mr. Horton is a former MD of Radio Tees in Stockton and then was involved in the setting up of other radio stations in York, Huddersfield, Scarborough and Sunderland. Today he is a director of a television and audio production company and of a magazine company.The Conservative candidate is Graham Robb a Broadcaster and Publicist who was once given a job my Toby Horton in local radio. Apparently Conservatives were not very happy to hear of Toby's decision to stand.

As for the Labour Candidate and the front runner to win the seat on the 19 th the 600 strong Sedgefield Labour Party last night selected Phil Wilson. who runs a public relations company in the Constituency and is a former Labour aide who has apparently so we are told built up a strong local profile.

As for the Lib-Dems well they are, as one would expect, still selecting a candidate. Nominations close at 4 pm on Friday.

This Blogg will, as our readers would indeed expect, keep reader up to date on the details of the by-election.
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By-Election at Sedgefield

Tony Blair announced his resignation today not only as Prime Minister but also as a Member of Parliament. At a meeting late this afternoon at the Trimdon Labour Club Mr Blair announced his resignation as the MP for Sedgefield who he has represented in the Commons since 1983.

The by-election will probably be held in three weeks time (we shall know for definite tomorrow). As well as all the main parties putting up candidates there will no be a number of independents who will be keen to take advantage of the opportunity to make a point or two. As we have said before, watch this space.

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