Early indications from Whickham South byelection

The by-election in my ward of Whickham South and Sunniside in Gateshead is now underway. Polling day is 31st July. Early indications from our canvassing are encouraging. I guess that with the way people feel about Labour, they will want to deliver their leaflets in the middle of the night, probably wearing dark glasses in the process!

People are also giving us their email addresses so they can get our email newsletter, which continues to be well received. I am working the next one this weekend.

Talking of which, I have an uncomfortably tight weekend coming up. Tomorrow morning I am meeting constituents about casework. And in the afternoon, I am going over to South Shields for my brother Matthew's 40th birthday. The family is supposed to be meeting on the beach. Given the weather, I suspect the beach party will be transferred to Matthew's living room!

I also have a number of unspeakable things to arrange to do to political opponents. Sorry guys, I know you read my blog but I aint telling you yet what I have planned for you. Let's just say I am combing through what you have said and done in the recent past! I also have more video to shoot and photos and video to sort from the recent holiday. And then there is the meeting on Sunday with the other Whickham councillors to discuss various local issues. And I need to get onto the allotment to do some weeding. And the jam and chutney making season starts with weekend as well. And finally, topping it all is the need to see the last edition of Dr Who. I missed it last week when I went to a Dolly Parton concert. But it was saved on Sky+.

Meanwhile, I am stuck on a train heading home and I have run out of history books to read. As an alternative I have rummaged through my briefcase and found some holiday brochures. Uzbekistan looks quite interesting. I suspect however that our next holiday in the autumn may be a bit closer to home and does not involve flying.. I would quite like to get the ferry over to Scandinavia. I've been to Norway and Finland and I once landed at Stockholm airport. But visiting Denmark and staying in Sweden (rather than simply passing through) is something I'd like to do.

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