Labour and Green leaflets at last

After several days of complaining that no-one was sending out anything for me to read, we get a couple through the door...

The first leaflet suggests that the Labour Party locally have woken up to the fact that there is an election going on and that it might be a good idea to ask for support at the ballot box. Two sides of A4 with 6 colour photos (5 include shots of Chris Leslie). The photos suggest a busy morning.

First off he had 5 photos taken in Hyson Green:

• Chris with a local resident,
• Chris standing in front of the Mary Potter Health Centre,
• Chris standing in front of a couple of trams at the Forest tram stop
• Chris talking to a couple of locals (one of whom looks a lot like a City Councillor) at the Forest tram stop
• he seems to have missed out being photographed with the Police Officer and CPSO at the tram stop opposite the Radford Road Police Station.

Then at some point in the proceedings he managed to be photographed holding a baby in front of the Sage building in Gateshead. What a shame, he was doing so well with the local landmarks until then. The message is about a strong voice for Nottingham East, public service investment, safer streets and "a future fair for all". A paragraph about Chris Leslie says he is 37 years old and married to Nicola with a 7 month old daughter, so that might be the baby in the photo taken in Gateshead.

My main area of interest is the public services (I know, selfish of me to want to hang on to my job) and the last line on the front of the leaflet caught my attention. After a couple of paragraphs extolling all the good work done - about improvements to school buildings, providing Children's Centres, protecting the NHS budget, and helping thousands avoid repossessions - there comes the "politician's promise"..."Only Labour will work hard to put investment in services first". What does that actually mean? If anyone can provide a translation I would welcome it.

The second leaflet came from the Benjamin Hoare who is standing for the Green Party. The small leaflet is surprisingly colourful and slightly glossy, but is "Printed on 100% recycled paper using sustainable technologies that do not harm the environment". There's a photo of the local candidate on the front and back by the Robin Hood statue to emphasise his local credentials (missed a trick there Mr Leslie), and the info inside looks to be generic with three key messages of "a living wage", "a million new jobs" and "protect the NHS". On the back is a bit about him that says he has "suffered at the hands of vandals and thieves, and personally stood up to a group of muggers to defend his property" but his message is about the need to invest in youth and our communities and to address the problems of social injustice and equality to bring our divided society together. A very positive message from the "man in black".

Meanwhile, the discussions about the second TV debate suggest that no-one won it and no-one lost it. The decision of the Tory press to start slinging mud at Clegg could potentially backfire, with the Daily Mail appearing very desperate with a nazi jibe. Not the wisest thing for them to do to someone whose mother was liberated from a WWII PoW camp by British Soldiers, and a bit rich from the paper that was vociferous in it's support of the Blackshirts in the 1930s.

Personally, I think Cameron is kicking himself. Demanding a TV debate with the expectation that your PR experience will help you appeal to the voters as the obvious successor while making Brown look "unslick" might have seemed like a foolproof strategy. Giving Clegg a platform and equal billing has been a spectacular own goal by Cameron. We'll just have to wait and see how the third debate plays out.