John Howell's Campaign Blog

Wednesday, 25 June, 2008

Libs negative campaigning seems to have hit them hard - 3.00pm

After waving good bye to Boris as we finished our walkabout in Henley town centre we headed down to Shiplake to do some canvassing with our local branch members before continuing on a tour of some of the southern most villages in the constituency including Sonning Common and Woodcote.

From there it was on to Goring, which is a lovely town right on the edge of our patch here. It was interesting that it is now quite clear that some people have had enough of the literature coming through their door and I have a certain amount of sympathy for them. I've seen a number of posters in people's windows now exclaiming that they are voting for me and don't want any more negative campaigning from the Liberals.

Then it was on to Stadhampton and Garsington finally ending up in Marsh Baldon which is an area I have previously represented as a County Councillor and it was good to catch up with lots of friendly faces that I haven't seen for a while. We had a very good reception around the Green and then we held a house meeting which was very well attended with over 20 people dropping by.

It was interesting to see how the people of Marsh Baldon have reacted to the campaign. Many, as in every other part of the constituency, have been appalled by the negative tactics used by the Lib Dems. Others had taken a particular interest in my continuing commitment to the green belt and other positive messages that had clearly resonated with them.

We started the final day of campaigning in Sandford-on-Thames which is right on the edge of the City of Oxford. From there it was back once again to Watlington where we were joined once again by Peter Henley of the BBC. He was doing his final piece of filming and managed to capture a large group of us, including the Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert, delivering pledge letters. The weather is just about holding so now we're off to three or four more villages with piles of pledge letters to deliver.
From: Henley Conservatives