After 3 busy weeks in Crewe I am back home and will be spending most of the bank holiday weekend sleeping I think!

It was a great experience to be part of the core team during a parliamentary by-election and see close up how the party machine operates, especially our party machine which is well versed in running winning by-election campaigns.

Crewe was always going to be a tough nut to crack for us though with sch a short campaign period, only 3 weeks and against a national media that totally wrote us out of the race throughout.

But against that background the result was very respectable and proved we are still a force to b reckoned with even when all the odds are against us.

And our candidate Elizabeth Shenton was an excellent candidate and it was a real pleasure to have worked for Elizabeth. I have no doubt Elizabeth has the potential to become an excellent MP in the near future.

Elizabeth is a very straight talking down to earth person who can relate so ell to ordinary people, understand their problems and share their concerns. She also had a terrific sense of humour – often asking if she was going to be such a strong independent voice for the people of Crewe and Nantwich why we were always telling her where to be, when to be there, what to wear and what to say!!

Back home I was delighted with the appointment with Harry Birch as Mayor of Halewood for the coming year and am looking forward to joining him at St Mary’s Church this morning for a service dedicated to his year in office.

Harry’s first major task as Mayor was to attend the annual conference of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) where Halewood Town Council won four awards including Council of the Year.

In addition to being named as the best performing Town Council in the country, we collected the award for Best Annual Report of the Year, came 3rd in Best Website of the Year and our Town Manager, John Green was 3rd in the Annual Clerk of the Year category.

Not a bad return for a Council that costs the local community on average about £1 a week for the services we provide!!

The Annual Meeting of the Council yesterday saw me take a well earned break from the by-election campaign in Crewe and Nantwich to receive the honour of becoming the Deputy Mayor of Knowsley for 2008/09.

A slight slip of the tongue by the incoming Mayor saw me announced as the Mayor instead of the Deputy but the Leader soon corrected the error and it gave everyone a chuckle!

It promises to be an interesting and eventful year ahead and no doubt you will be reading more of my activities on this blog in the weeks and months to come.

Meanwhile its back to Crewe this morning for me…………………

The by-election in Crewe is keeping me busy every day and out of trouble but it does mean other chores are getting put back until after May 22nd!

However, it is worth all the effort as we have a terrific candidate in Elizabeth Shenton who people really do warm to when they meet her. We also have a terrific team working on the campaign directed by Hilary Stephenson and led by Agent Neil Trafford, supported by Stuart Bray. We really have bonded together well as a team and progress has been good in such a shot space of time.

There have been plenty of familiar faces visiting the campaign HQ in Fourth Avenue and I hope to see many more before it is all over!!

I am having a day off tomorrow though to attend a family funeral, Sarah’s Grandad passed away recently and it will be a sad day for all the family as we say goodbye to him but I was so glad he was able to celebrate his 100th birthday last October………..well done Claude.

Back to Crewe this morning, by-elections have no respect for bank holidays and with only 17 days to polling day we can hardly expect a day off now can we!?

Like most of the Crewe crew it has been a challenge over the last couple of days to switch from local election mode into by-election mode so quickly but the mood of the team and the general office banter yesterday was top class and you can sense we are all re-energised for the short but intense fight ahead.

And with so much to do in such a short space of time I need to get going so apologies for the brief entry today but consider yourselves lucky to get anything at all.

Ok ok Hilary I’m coming………………………!

COSTA DEL CREWE!

Looking for a break after the hard work of the local election campaign? Needing to get away from it all before planning, printing and delivering those Thank You leaflets? Well the Lib Dems new service for party members – LD Shortbreaks – has arranged a wonderful opportunity for you to unwind, recharge your batteries and share election tales.

In the heart of South Cheshire the town of Crewe is perhaps best known for its association with the railways, being a major junction and once home to a major railway works. From 1946 until 2002 it was the home of Rolls-Royce motor car production. At the end of 2002 Rolls-Royce production ceased at Crewe; the Pyms Lane factory on the west of the town now produces Bentley motor cars exclusively.

The team at LD Shortbreaks has arranged a series of guided walks in and around the Crewe & Nantwich area for your enjoyment and pleasure and will even provide you with the names and addresses of local residents who are guaranteed to give you a warm welcome if you knock on their door and introduce yourselves to them.

They are even producing our own local newspapers and magazines for you to leave with them to read, maybe even saving them a trip to the local newsagent!

If you want to know more about this exclusive deal for Lib Dem members please visit –
http://www.elizabethshenton.com/help-elizabeth-win/

Less than 10 hours after finally getting to bed at 5am this morning after a terrifc night in Knowsley (3 gains from Labour!!) and Flintshire (3 gains from Labour but 2 losses - net gain of 1) I am already sat in the HQ of the Crewe & Nantwich by-election surrounded by masses of volunteers eager and ready to get going on the next campaign!!

Well actually there are only four of us right now but the count for the Crewe & Nantwich District of the new Cheshire East unitary council is still taking place and as soon as that is over I’m sure we will be joined by others chomping at the bit to get going!!

At least the local candidates can be assured with some help for their thank you leaflets in this area!!

If you are planning to come to Crewe in the near future our candidate Elizabeth Shenton is working hard for people in Crewe and Nantwich and she needs your help to become our next MP.

Come along to Elizabeth’s campaign HQ between 9am and 9pm, 7 days a week.

Elizabeth’s HQ is at Capital House, 4th Avenue, Crewe, CW1 6XL. There is parking available outside and it is 10-15 minutes walk from Crewe station.

Now I wonder if I can get forty winks in the corner before they all get back from the count………………..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The leaflets are delivered, the canvassing is completed and there is just time to write a brief note for my blog before knocking on a few more doors before the polling stations close in less than two hours.

As usual here in Halewood it is going to be an interesting night, with the marginal South ward being heavily contested by us and Labour - who are defending it this year – and it is hard to know which way it will swing today. Last year we were defending and only held on with a majority of 3 so it could be close yet again!!

We have an excellent team of candidates standing here though – Harry Birch (South ward), Shelley Powell (North ward) and Terry Powell (West ward) who have worked hard during the campaign and whatever the outcome they deserve our thanks for their efforts and hard work.

Our colleagues elsewhere in Knowsley are also confident of a good night with eyes on the outcome of the Kirkby results where the Tesco/Everton stadium proposals have split local opinion and may well have galvanised enough of an anti Labour vote to cause an upset or two – and that’s without even mentioning post office closures or the 10p rate of tax debacle!! Watch this space!