Kitty Ussher is Labour candidate in Burnley. Her campaign diary this week updates us on the antics of the Burnley Labour Party Chicken, on the quality of the mayor's fondant fancies, and echoes the conerns of Labour's national campaign.
My greatest fear is that people will think that everyone else is voting Labour and switch their vote as a mini-protest over something or other, presuming wrongly that it won't make a difference.
Kitty Ussher writes:
"Thank you to everyone who emailed to express their concerns for the state of my campaign manager's mental health following his unilateral decision to dress up from head to toe in a chicken outfit. Bolstered by this potential for international fame, the Burnley Labour Party Chicken made several more appearances alongside me in the town centre, outside primary schools and on strategic roundabouts, before he vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared. 'No more chickens,' I was told, and that was that. We wait with anticipation to see if any other animals will appear in the final week ...
"At this stage of the campaign the priority is to shore up our core vote. The postal ballot papers are starting to land on the doorstep and so far our Labour supporters among them seem still to be voting for us on the whole. But a week is a long time in politics and anything could happen.
"My greatest fear is that people will think that everyone else is voting Labour and switch their vote as a mini-protest over something or other, presuming wrongly that it won't make a difference. I'm continually trying to remind people that the Tories always come second in Burnley, so if Labour voters switch to a smaller party it'll just let the Tories in. People here are clear that they don't want that to happen.
"Meanwhile the mayor of Burnley invited all the candidates to a tea-time reception. A nice gesture, and there were some decent cakes on offer, but I can't imagine that any of us really wanted to be in a room with all our opponents making small talk a week before the election, in prime canvassing time. So we all just ate the fondant fancies and made our excuses before too long. Next time we're all together will be at the count."
