Grist to the mill

 

I have been so busy over the past 4 weeks (lambing and political campaigning) that I haven't had a chance to write about the local elections here in Gateshead. So, with a few minutes to spare before I have to print another leaflet, here is a bit of catch up. And first up is the Labour candidate against me in Whickham South and Sunniside.

Sam Grist works for Liz Twist, MP for Blaydon. I am reminded of the Labour election attacks on me 20 years ago for working in politics! But we won't let a bit of Labour hypocrisy get in the way of wishing Sam all the best with the election campaign and I am looking forward to meeting him for the first time at the count on Friday.

Sam has something of an interesting background. A quick search of Linkedin reveals that Sam has a long history of working for Labour. This quote caught my attention:

"Having helped with bespoke correspondence for The Leader Of The Opposition, I went on to take a lead on several different correspondence based projects."

This was dated Feb 2016 to Dec 2018. And who was Leader of the Opposition at the time? None other than Jeremy Corbyn! I didn't see any reference to that in his leaflet!

Another quick search revealed Sam's history of standing in local elections goes beyond the borders of Gateshead. He was also a Labour candidate in the local elections in 2021 and 2022 in Newcastle. I haven't looked any further back in time but hopefully his record of standing and not winning continues south of the Tyne! 

See you on Friday Sam!