More on the Leicester elections

As well as being sent volumes of printed material from the candidates we have also had a number of canvassers actually call at the house.

I have already mentioned one of the Labour ward candidates and predict, though he will probably lose, we will be seeing more of him. We also liked the Conservative ward candidate who, as I reported earlier, appeared to listen.

The most enjoyable (certainly in terms of discomfort) was the LibDem canvasser. New readers need to know that as soon as the bye election was called the LD's selected a man who, briefly, held the seat after Labour MP Jim Marshall died. That man only held it until the last general election when Peter Souslby regained it for Labour. That LD man was selected when Peter Soulsby resigned to fight for the Mayorality. A couple of days later the LD man withdrew and, hastily, another man was selected to fight for the LDs.
The new LD man is a health campaigner of some standing and puts high on his agenda saving the local paediatric cardiac surgery unit from closure. I really wanted to discuss this with the LD candidate because I do think it is easy to get away with sloppy emotional campaign slogans when it really deserves something much more serious by way of thinking and analysis from politicians. Sadly, when the LD canvasser came, bravely we thought, he was unable to discuss the details of this aspect of his candidate's campaign. The candidate, we were told, had been called away to deal with a sick parent. It was a pity we were not able to engage with him directly.
THEN we raised the topic of tuition fees. The poor man gave us the LibDem canvassers' party line which it was obvious he did buy and then had the guts to say it was not his view anyway. He left after we had thanked him for taking the time to talk to us.
Overall, not a bad slew of doorstep canvassers. Brave people. So for tomorrow's voting I predict:
No to AV but by a smaller than expected majority. Reasoning: those in favour are more likely to vote than those against. Leicester South stays Labour but with a reduced majority. The city council stays Labour but with a reduced majority. LE2 Knighton ward returns with one or two tories, LD Gary Hunt loses to Labour or Tory. Mayor: Peter Souslby but only just. LD Gary Hunt comes third and runner up is
Rick Moore ("I'm independent, not political"). City Mayor choses cabinet of all the talents ie Rick Moore is given a role, as is Gary Hunt. This, sadly, is not likely to happen given the tribalism of British politics.

The results are likely to be out by Friday evening.