Thursday night, and I decide to hit the pub for my customary half a bitter shandy weekly treat, yet here, there is no escape from the Battle of Broxtowe.
To quote The Pixies: ‘Politics goes so well with beer’, and talk invariably turns to the campaign. Friends who were previously apolitical have been inspired to take an interest, and round the table I ascertain I’m with two labour supporters, two tories, one lib dem, one green, one UKIP and four undecided. Between answering pub quiz questions we argued, debated, and it dawned on me that this is the true fertile ground for politics. This is where the election is fought, in pubs, in coffee shops, anywhere people gather.
This seems lost on Soubry, who attacked ‘man-in-the-pub’ politics at a recent hustings. This might sound like the bitter rantings of a man snubbed by her refusal to engage via Beestonia (and her remark that I was ‘sexist’, which was a rather bizarre accusation, silly girl), but I am amazed that her campaign is failing so badly. Mitchell, Watts and Palmer have all commented here, have engaged in debate, yet she finds it below her. This seems indicative of her attitude towards the electorate in Broxtowe, she isn’t able to get her campaign over to them. It can’t be easy, a few months ago it seemed like she could just sit and wait for May 6th, strolling into power riding on the national popularity of the tories and Ashcroft’s lucre, but now she seems to have a real battle to depose Palmer.
A previous comment on this blog tells how Soubry didn’t reply to a constituent’s email, instead sending a out-of-office. This isn’t an isolated incident. A local businessman I was chatting to last night, wrote to Anna several weeks ago, asking her position on certain areas of policy that would decide who gets his vote. He even headed it ‘potential conservative voter’, yet it still remains unreplied. I should be flattered her rebuke to myself took just 7 hours to recieve: I sent it as 2am, her response arrived just before 9am.
The invite still exists Anna, anything you send will be faithfully posted up here unedited. The offer is also extended to the other candidates, even Mick Shore, the former Ku Klux Klan organizer and arse-faced tosswad from the BNP. He’ll probably accuse me of misandry (look it up) for that description…
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A strange email this morning from someone purporting to be Soubry’s Campaign Manager, asking for details of Beestonia’s readership: how many people read this. I replied, and now wonder, if it was a genuine query, why? Any ideas out there?
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This afternoon I did what I do most days, and went into Beeston for coffee. Strolling in for my caffeine fix, I was rather shocked to see Soubry sitting inside. I thought better of saying hello. Possibly the least comfortable coffee EVER.
Later, a fellow caffeine addict told me she had just seen her in the bookies. Could this be linked to the revelation on the broxtowe2010 website that Ladbrokes are offering 3/1 on a Labour hold in Broxtowe? Was she hedging her bets with a flutter on Dr Palmer?
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Politics aside. Tomorrow the Uni Campus is opened up to the public for an open community day, more info here http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/Community/OpenDay/CommunityOpenDay.aspx. Come along, its forecast a great sunny day, so you can grab an ice-cream and potter round Highfields afterwards.
Beestonia 