Before I begin this week’s blog, I must apologise for not publishing an installment for the past few weeks. Regretfully my trusted laptop for the last year sadly passed away. I have therefore had to wait for my new netbook before resuming my writing. The good news is that I’m back, so without further adieu, let’s begin.
I have been at Stewart Jackson Campaign HQ for six weeks now and I must say that I am really starting to feel at home there. I am grateful for the trust that they have shown in me and only hope that I can continue to serve them after the election. There have been whisperings in back corners that this will be sooner than previously thought. Our economic recovery remains a fragile one and political analysts are raising the spectre of an early election before any public backlash against the government can ensue. Yet the Conservatives, who once commanded a 16 point advantage, have seen their lead drop to just 5 points and I predict that the government will continue to wait and see if this drops any further.
We have continued to reach out to voters with further campaign literature being sent out in the last week – that means plenty of address labels to stick on! I have also, after a long slog, completed inputting the current batch of electoral data.
Finally, I have revised my strategic communications plan, adding further research and some extra ideas, making my graphs look more professional and things like that. I think it’s a lot stronger as a result. Speaking of my communications plan, I published a poll this week which asked
“Should campaign literature be made more inclusive with the use of braille and sign language on political broadcast?”
Go to the link http://polls.linkedin.com/p/78690/jiekb for more information. It would be very insightful to hear your thoughts.
I was rather surprised by the amount of interest that people took in it, with one professional from Connecticut writing in to say that she thought it was an "interesting and important question" and has posted the link to her Twitter page. It just goes to show how significant the issue of equalities is to people at the moment.
As I was saying before, I really appreciate the efforts that Stewart, Matthew and the team have made for me and I am glad that they are pleased with my work. I rather like the idea of being a Communications Assistant/Online Political Analyst after the election. I’ll discuss this further with them nearer the time – they have enough on their plate at the moment than to worry about little old me. I envisage maintaining a newly revamped website, attending Stewart’s engagements, taking photographs and publishing the stories online. I could monitor social networking sites and articles on Stewart in local newspapers, analysing them and writing responses. Perhaps I could do some research on a particular field i.e. the issue of access and equalities in Peterborough? Sounds like an interesting job for me.
I am currently waiting for the England v Ireland rugby match to start. England have yet to lose in this tournament having beaten both Wales and Italy in recent weeks and are on course for a Grand Slam win… One thing is for sure, Ireland will be tough and England, being England, won’t make it easy for themselves or their viewers…
I'm already biting my nails
