Rick's St Mary's Diary

Apologies again for the odd posting times for blogs of late. I am waging an ongoing battle with the people at Orange Broadband who seem singularly incapable of fixing whatever intermittent problem it is that causes my phone to work but my modem to not. And their Indian call centre isn't helping the problem. The lines are faint, there is a satellite delay, and the poor staff on the other end are clearly reading a script that leaves absolutely no room for variance even if what they're asking me to do is absolutely impossible. "Once you have completed all the troubleshooting steps I will be able to assist you by employing our engineers..." she tells me over and over again, like some kind of deranged robot.

I must say I am very disappointed with Orange's customer services, especially the decades-long and utterly bewildering cavalcade of menu-options delivered in the same female voice that tells me how many voicemail messages I've got on my mobile - a voice that is both soothing and utterly INFURIATINGLY SLOW at the same time. And unfortunately, unlike their mobile phone operation, I can't end the call by bagging an extra 500 free texts off the guy in their call centre. I instead end the call wanting to throw my incapable modem through the window. We shall see if it lets me post things from home again ever...

Anyway...

Another day on the campaign trail yesterday, another ominous-looking sky which, after debating all day, decided not to empty itself directly onto my head when out canvassing. Now we're in the final stretch of campaigning, there's only a week until election day and the pace is really hotting up.

I have been talking to some people on my Facebook campaign site about the elections, and a number of them have said how our policy of keeping in touch with local people throughout the year has been a real driver for them to give us their votes this year. Our Focus leaflets are delivered to every house in the ward approximately every six weeks, and the vast majority are delivered by hand by us. Not only does this allow us to keep in touch with people and let them know what we've been doing on their behalf, but it also allows us to really get to know every inch of the ward. I doubt there's a street in St Mary's that I haven't leafleted or canvassed over the last twelve months, and it's great to be able to get around to pretty much every home.

The opposition may send out glossy leaflets at election time, but ask yourself, when was the last time you heard from them? Probably last time there was an election!

Rick