Yes it's Saturday and it's Campaign day

Its been a good day campaigning. We were pleased to have as a special guest Vicky Ford MEP & son (Anthony).

Vicky is a great politician and I was really pleased she was elected - as Eastern Region Conservative MEP - to the European Parliament last year. She has been a good friend to Harlow Conservatives, and has come here to help on a number of occasions over the years. See HERE and HERE.

She isn't one of those politicians who once voted in, forget the party grassroots either. She has been back to Harlow a few times since being elected and was here when Iain Duncan Smith came to visit some community organisations in November.

The photo shows Vicky with some of us before we went out knocking on doors. It is worth reading her excellent blog too, which can be seen HERE.

P.S. I was also in Church Langley with Cllr. Tony Hall for a couple of hours handing out some leaflets. It was a good morale boost to have a number of people walking past wishing me luck for the election.

Wind, Rain and Hailstones but still there is canvassing!!!

We had an Action Day today in Staple Tye - for the by election on 30 April. When I stepped out of my front door this morning, and saw the weather, between you and me, I secretly hoped it might be cancelled!!

But no such luck! Local Conservatives are determined to win the by-election and were out in force. So Vanda and I went out to leaflet outside Lidles in Staple Tye. Vanda (my girlfriend) is from Brazil and used to 90 degrees weather, so she was freezing. We warmed up with a short break thanks to some McDonald's Cappuccinos.

We had a really good response in Staple Tye, and many people wished me luck in the General Election, even though it might be next year.

People are fed up with Gordon Brown. One lady told me how she had saved all her life and now her savings were worth nothing - thanks to the Government's mishandling of the economy.

After a hot soup lunch in Latton Bush, we were out again canvassing in Copse Hill Close. Again, a really good response - even previous Liberal voters were waivering and said they might vote Tory this time. I love the big hand in Gladwyn Court, so the photo shows Clive Souter and I standing by it, after a good afternoons efforts.

Tonight some friends have arranged a 40th birthday party for me in a Pub in Roydon which should be fun! More on that in my next post.

A Good Saturday

It’s a lovely quiet night in as I have had a long day campaigning. In the morning I was outside Church Langley Tesco’s with local Cllrs Andrew Johnson, Simon Carter and Clive Souter. I had a good discussion with the relatively new manager of Tescos, Mark about the new Wind Turbines. I have had a number of emails about this issue and wanted reassurance. The Manager promise that these Turbines would be silent and were not turbines in the traditional sense- more like revolving lampposts with ears. It is good that Tescos’ is concerned about the environment- as long as local residents are not inconvenienced in the process. Whilst I was at Tescos, I was astonished to learn that of Council rents collected by Harlow Council, the Government take away £13 million for spending out of Harlow! £!3 million!! Imagine what could happen if Harlow Council was able to spend its own money, instead of being forced to hand over so much to Gordon Brown and be spent in Scotland and the North of England.

After Tescos, it was off to Church Langley to do some canvassing door to door. Most residents expressed real upset about the state of the economy – high taxes and high debt. I have promised to raise the concerns of one local resident about allocation to Passmores school. She told me that contrary to previous years, very few children in Church Langley were being offered places in Passmores – this was because of the closure of Brays Grove and the future re-building of Passmores on the old Brays Grove site. I promised that I would take up the concerns with Essex Council.

Before going home I had went to the O2 shop in Broadwalk to try and pick up my blackberry- not ready yet! I also had a look at an amazing new phone, the Sony Ericsson C905. This tiny phone has 8 million pixels camera on it which is state of art. It really is incredible what phones have on them nowadays. Sadly my upgrade isn’t till June, so I will have to wait so I can get this phone for free on my contract! I had to stop at the cafe just opposite Barclays. In my view they make one of the best cups of coffee in Harlow, and it was good to drink my coffee and read the paper and relax a little.



Rob Halfon ~ Working hard for Harlow, Hastingwood, Nazeing, Roydon and Sheering.