Neil MacDonald

Let's be 'aving you!

Just had a reporter on the phone.  Unfortunately, he wasn't that interested in me but he had heard that Delia Smith was going to campaign on behalf of the Labour Party!!  He reckoned that the top TV chef and Norwich FC director lived in my constituency and would be coming out on the stump!

It was news to me and, unfortunately, Delia lives just over the boundary in the next constituency.

Would be great to have celebrity backing but I'm not sure that the football mad residents of North Ipswich would take kindly to a candidate who hobnobs with a leading canary!

Neil's Suffolk Challenge

There are several political stories in Friday's paper, with the Labour reshuffle bringing back Alan Milburn and the Tory reshuffle bringing back John Redwood. Fox Hunting to be banned too!

Graham Dines still finds time to write up his interview with me and it's here.

The EADT Editorial talks about Howard's current strategy "unlikely to appeal to younger generations of voters who believe Britain's future lies at the heart of an influential Europe and who in their droves have turned their backs on the Conservatives". Couldn't have put it better myself!

Meeting the press

Met with Graham Dines, political editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, also known as the EADT or just "The Anglian". We chatted for an hour down at the Waterfront. We covered many policy areas including foxhunting, campaigning, housing, transport, the other political parties and date of the election. He reckons it will be at the end of October. I think that date may be attractive to Tony because he won't really want to be fighting an election while he is head of the G8 or President of Europe next year. However, I suspect that backbenchers with a small majority will want more time to win over the electorate post-iraq. So I still think Spring 2005.

He said that the bulk of the paper's sales are in the Central Suffolk area, so I need to keep in his good books!

Was at IBC Labour councillors meeting tonight. Had a good chat to the Ipswich Agent (John Cook) about campaigning.