Saturday, March 13, 2010

A bit more about the door knocking...

Incidentally, whilst on the subject of door knocking, I am amused by LibDem attempts on other websites to suggest that Labour's support is fracturing or moving away in Kensington and Fairfield. I don't know who they think reads the things they write, other than politicos, so I don't know who they think are kidding.

I can tell you with total honesty and my hand on my heart, our support is as strong as ever, if not more so, as more people meet us and work with us as the years go by.

People like what we have been doing in the area, they like our availability, our success rate in dealing with their casework, or advocating their projects. They like seeing us often, having us attend their events and community meetings, they like being able to contact us 7 days a week in a whole variety of ways, they like it that they actually know us, know our names, can have us in for a cup of tea and a catch-up, they feel involved, included and listened to.

This is what representative democracy is meant to be about. I often say to my constituents that the only reason we have councillors is because the 9500 people who live in the ward (and their children) cannot all fit in the Town Hall to discuss local issues, so they need to choose someone to go on their behalf and speak the words they would say if they were there instead.

We continue to grow our list of Labour supporters and it is now bigger than it has ever been while I have been here. This is a fact, not supposition, pysch opps or propaganda.

I genuinely believe that Labour has been doing a good job in Kensington and Fairfield tackling local issues and we will be judged on our record in a few months time.

Whilst the silly little boys in the Garmoyle (LibDem HQ) spend their hours dreaming up new ways to tell lies about us (and especially me) in the hope that they will win a few votes from us, we are genuinely doing our best, putting in the hours, for our residents. Perhaps it is because the aforementioned have never been councillors. I only hope that if they do become part of the process of representative democracy, the scales will fall from their eyes and they will truly understand what our purpose is. There are members on the LibDems benches who will know exactly what I am talking about. They would agree with me that a chamber full of no-marks with nothing to contribute, no passion, no ideas, no dreams of a better way, no idea about policy, is a democratic nightmare.

If you wish for power through the ballot box then you have to know what you will do with it once you have it. It is not enough merely to win it.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

If the blog in question was so unimportant and not read, why are you defending yourself from the attack? Seems a bit silly to me..

scouseboy said...

Because of the hard work you and your team have put in, you will increace your majority in K+F in May x

Louise Baldock said...

Anon, I wish merely to set the record straight. I am not being defensive, indeed I am proud of the hard work we have done in the ward.

Lynnette Kelly said...

I was out door knocking in Birmingham on Sunday and met someone by the name of Al Satian. Got out of hospital after only 4 hours, thank you NHS, with a massive bandage on my finger and a stack of antibiotics. People keep saying 'oh it's lucky it's your left hand.' NO, I'm left handed. Be warned, look out for non unionised dogs.
Love from Lynnette

Louise Baldock said...

Oh Lynnette, that is terrible, it must have been very scary. I bet it was a Tory dog too, wasn't it. Will it get you out of leafletting though? Maybe there is a small silver lining? Ouch! Sending you a big hug.

Gerard Thompson said...

Hello Louise, I saw in this blog that you know we (the Lib Dems) refer to our HQ on Smithdown Road as "The Garmoyle" - no secret in itself, of course!

I was wondering if Labour HQ on Prescott Road also has a nick-name given to it by its activists? I haven't heard of one as yet.

Louise Baldock said...

Gerard, I can happily inform you that we have never referred to our office as "Prescot Road" (only one "t" by the way, it is named after the town that you might have reached if you kept going all the way along it). I have never heard a single person call it that - other than you and your mates in the Garmoyle that is, on your horrible blog. But if I were to tell you what we do call our office, it would give your slurs a greater level of authenticity than they merit. So forgive me if I keep it to myself ;-)

Gerard Thompson said...

Prescot indeed!

I didn't actually know the original road led to the town, though I do enjoy my local history.

I'm sad your keeping this info to yourself :(
However I'm sure you can imagine we can come up a few nick-names of our own :)

Louise Baldock said...

I am sure you can and will. I would expect nothing less from you, or nothing more, whichever. I expect someone who actually reads your offerings will alert me to them in due course. I only read your blog when I am alerted to do so by Google because you have directly named me, otherwise I never come near it. Nice to know however that you are picking up on some of the good news stories in Kensington and Fairfield, by your judicious following of my own contributions. Cheers.

Gerard Thompson said...

Tsk! Fine.

I'll just have to get more local history from Luciana Berger as she knows the area extremely well.

Whist I have given Prescot road an extra 't', I see from a recent leaflet with her face on it, Wavertree is now spelt with three 'e's. I don't think Colin will be taking up that change when he is MP.

I was pleased to see the good news story of the CCTV cameras on your blog - in it you state the residents in your ward (currently) of K&F are asking for more of them. Interesting "good" news. You aided this request I assume, when Cllr. Bradley was in the ward?

And yes, I do like to keep up to date. I have enjoyed your new glossy Kensington newsletter - no Luciana in its many pictures? I thought you'd welcome her backing, or vice-versa. The same can be said of the Picton candidate. Unlike previous newsletters, you have included 'Labour' in its title, which is commendable.

Oh come on Louise, give us that nick-name!

Louise Baldock said...

Dear Gerard, you may be aware that your great and glorious leader is in extremely hot water over his visit to our ward. If I were you I would be playing the whole thing down, not keep on mentioning it. You may know that he did not invite me to join in, not even when he saw me in the car as he parked next to me in the car park on his arrival. So I was not given the opportunity to talk to him about any local issues. I understand from the embarrassed senior officer at the district comnmittee later though that they were there to talk about entry dumping, so I don't think the subject would have come up to be honest.

The CCTV cameras in K&F have been provided by Kenny Regen through Labour Government funding, as far as I know the LibDems have not put up a camera in our area, and we know why now, Clegg doesn't like them.

Luciana and I work very closely together, be in no doubt about that, you have obviously not seen our fabulous new "sorry you were out" cards, with a lovely photo of the two of us on the front. Voters are offered an interesting choice, Berger and Baldock or Eldridge and Doran, it is a good job it is not a beauty contest.

I wanted the last leaflet to be a celebration of the community, utilising in particular photos of a very special event we had in the ward in December before Luciana was selected. I am and remain very concerned that the fascists don't get a toe-hold in our area, we must do everything we can to help people to live together with pride. I am sure that future leaflets will show us both together, celebrating some of the wonderful achievements of a Labour government in our area over the last 13 years.

You will however have noticed that unlike your leaflets, we always have huge numbers of real local people in ours, because they love Labour in K&F.

You dont need to take my word for that, you can take their word - on May 6th.

(The only difficulty we have with getting the word Labour into the title on leaflets is that "Kensington and Fairfield" takes up a lot of room. Add that to "Labour" and "Rose" and you are down to about 26 point. Imagine how lucky the people in "Park ward" in Sheffield are for instance. They have loads of room for extra words in their title)

Louise Baldock said...

Dear Gerard, again. As a blog editor yourself, I am sure you are familiar with the facility where comments that offend are not authorised. Your latest efforts have been unsuccessful. Incoherent Saturday night ramblings - you would only regret them anyway if I did publish them so really I am doing you a favour. Go and do something more useful, young men like yourself should not be sitting on the internet on a Saturday night anyway, kick your shoes off, chill.

dudethedog said...

Oh dear Louise, the silly little boys have been at it again...

http://tommorrison.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/leaflet-of-lies/

enjoy xxx