Divisions and solidarity

Elections now dominate. I am told there are 9 candidates in the field for Forth. All the usuals plus an independent. He is well known to me. There was a time he aspired to be a Labour Party candidate but was refused a place on the list of approved candidates - and so predictably he left Labour. And has been a constant critic ever since. It will be interesting to see how he does.

This week has been a constant round of delivering pamphlets, creating text for new ones and canvassing. No-one in the labour camp is pretending this is an easy campaign. National unpopularity always makes itself felt locally but so far things go well: we are keeping to timetable and the spirit is good. I have had much amusement reading the rival candidates literature - in particular my erstwhile labour colleague, now running for the SNP. I never remember him being particularly nationalistic in outlook - maybe there has been a Damascan conversion and he has found new convictions. ..maybe not. However, he is an able speaker though, in my opinion, tends towards demagoguery the more uncertain he is of his ground. He cannot be dismissed as a fool. So that's two ex-Labourites in the Forth race - that I know of - and perhaps more if the Solidarity and SSP candidates began their political life with us too. The splintering of the left - Marx and other erudite philosophers had much to say about such things. Labour and the ordinary working person cannot benefit from such division.

Two unexpected, lovely bonuses this week - a phone call from an elderly constituent who received a letter from me. Eighty years old and determined to come out to vote for me and an email from a constituent I did not consider a particular friend full of personal, positive encouragement. Small things to the individuals concerned but enormous to a candidate suffering dropping energy levels and all the usual uncertainty of an election.