Open Road

Monday May 19th 2008

Crewe Cuts

My first impression of Crewe was that the place was Red. There were Virgin Train guards in red jackets and red brick buildings such as one finds in the northwest. In fact Crewe looked just like Preston, where I had just come from. Surely not Cameron country?

Within half a mile of the town centre however the place changes suddenly into a semi-rural area. Here I saw a lot of Conservative posters – I swear that the face of Edward Timpson is now seared into my retinas until the End Times. This Tory part of the constituency seemed mobilised, keen and organised.

Certainly everyone in Crewe was aware of the election, and when I say aware, I mean sick-of. Tories had come in force – MPs, activists and pink-shirted Conservative Future youth. On the other side Jack Straw was known to be on the loose. He won the Labour leadership election for Gordon Brown, I wonder if a contest with other candidates presents a more complex challenge?

I helped canvass in one of the outlying villages, a street with well kept semis at one end and fairly large detached houses at the other. Conservative support was strong and enthusiastic, particularly from older people and a couple who ran their own business. About a quarter of those I met used to vote Labour – not one was sure they would now. Concerns varied - economic conditions and “time for a change” all came up on the doorstep, as did local issues – one man was protesting about the fact that his children has not got into the local school and would have to go to another some distance away.

Back in town things are more promising for the government, there are actual Labour posters to be seen, but almost as many Lib Dem and even the occasional Tory ones too. I saw no Labour activists, and word was they were not thick on the ground.

Labour’s election publicity was backward looking, with lots of black and white pictures telling the history of Crewe and the Dunwoodys. It was also severely tactically flawed – “Tory 10p Tax Chaos” seems a good example of pointing out the splint in your neighbour’s eye just in case someone missed the beam in your own.

Conservative publicity echoed that used in London –a leaflet with blue and green positive messages and talk of tackling crime on the one side and scary red letters warning that Gordon Brown wants you to stay at home on the other.

The Lib Dems seemed to be running the strangest campaign. The candidate wore a red dress in her poster, thus at first glance displaying the same colour combination as Labour. Her leaflet, grandly called a “magazine,” used SDP style red and blue lettering on the front with no Lib Dem logo before the back page.

I have few doubts that this will be a Conservative win, and with Labour support so soft, possibly on a larger scale than the polls indicate.