April 2010
The world's worst kept secret is now out and the date of the General Election has been set to coincide with the local elections on Thursday May 6th.
I spent most of the Easter break delivering leaflets in Elthorne and collecting signatures so we can stand candidates in the local elections. Each candidate has to have ten signatures from registered voters living in a ward before they are eligible to stand. We are planning to field a full slate of 69 candidates across Ealing (three candidates in each of the twenty-three wards in the borough) so that means we have to collect 690 signatures for the local elections and hand them into the council by the April 8th deadline plus I need a further ten more signatures so I can stand in the General Election!
On Wednesday 7th I attended a meeting of "Save Our West London Hospitals" at the West London Trade Union Club in Acton along with fellow Lib Dem parliamentary candidates Chris Lucas and Jon Ball. Gurcharan Singh from the Tories was also present along with a TV crew from Newsnight and a clip of the meeting is due to be shown on Thursday's programme. I watched the Newsnight on the following night and catch a glimpse of myself at the back of the shot - fortunately they seemed to film it so you couldn't see the Labour poster in the window!
Monday 12th I attended the Olde Hanwell Residents Association "Question Time" along with Dave Randles. One candidate from each of the three main parties spoke from the platform and Peter Hutchison represented us as he lives in Green Lane in the Olde Hanwell area. I shall also be going along to the Hanwell Community Forum hustings on Tuesday 13th and I think it is good that these local residents' associations are taking an interest in the local elections so people can grill their potential councillors about the issues they are interested in and what they would do for the area. Thursday 15th I met a group of Equitable Life Pensioners after having signed their pledge to support their compensation claims which the Labour Government have ignored for the last ten years. I also watched the first TV debate, and although I am obviously biased thought that Nick Clegg performed very well and for me won the debate.
Since the debate, the Lib Dems have shot up in the polls. The BPIX poll for the Mail on Sunday puts us on 32% ahead of the Tories on 31% and Labour trailing on 28%. That has been translated into a really positive feeling with lots of messages of support when I have been out and about campaigning in Hanwell and West Ealing. The deadline for Postal votes is April 20th and then the ballot papers are due to arrive at the end of the week so our surge in the polls could not be better timed. However, the most important poll is on May 6th so we cannot take our current popularity for granted and we will have to continue to work our socks off right until the last votes are cast just before 10pm on the 6th May. On Sunday, after much persuasion, I have finally set up a Twitter account NigelBakhai.
Now the election is under way, I have had lots more media coverage and requests for interviews. Each week in the run up to May 6th I have been asked to provide an article to the Ealing Gazette on the subjects of Ealing Southall, Health, Education and Transport. On Monday 19th, I gave an interview for the Southall based community radio station Desi Radio. During the by-election Desi Radio organised a radio hustings with my Labour and Tory opponents, but this time it was recorded over the phone. I was a little put off at first by the echo of my voice but otherwise I thought the interview went quite well. Building on from this, I gave an interview to Sunrise Radio on the NHS and Ealing Hospital on Wedneday, and I have attended a Sunrise TV debate with G.Singh on Thursday 22nd (unfortunately my Labour opponent declined the invitation). I had to laugh in the debate when G.Singh described himself as an "Action Man" - I never thought of him as a 70s plastic toy. It also amused me that he had to ask me for directions to St.Paul's Church in Northfields - he obviously hasn't taken an interest in the area east of the Iron Bridge before! On Tuesday 27th I gave an interview to Hayes FM and I joined a debate on Westside Radio in the evening of Friday 30th. Again the Labour candidate refused to attend - apparently he has a policy of not sharing a platform with G.Singh. This dates back to a petty rivalry when they were both in the Labour party hoping to succeed Piara Khabra - which resulted in Mr. Singh joining the Tories when he failed to get the Labour nomination in the by-election.
I am spent the weekend of the 24th and 25th knocking on doors. Saturday was spent in West Ealing and in Hanwell on Sunday. Talking to voters, most people are focused on the General Election, and very few people are thinking about the local council elections being held on the same day. A lot of people I have met seem to be very positive towards Nick Clegg, and most people recognised that we are working hard in the local area and that we understand their issues like the Green Man redevelopment and the decline of West Ealing. The good news is that a number of postal voters I have spoken to have already voted Lib Dem. One of the most important local issues that is being raised is over the future of Ealing Hospital. I attended the SOS Ealing Hospital meeting on Wednesday 28th at Dormers Wells High School and I was there again the following day to talk with pupils preparing for their school mock General Election.