Bridges action day

 

Gateshead Lib Dems had yet another action day on Sunday. The aim was to deliver the latest Focus newsletters across a fair chunk of Bridges ward. This was achieved. I had only 2 conversations with residents while I was out delivering. The first was with someone who had voted Labour at the last general election, is not interested in Reform and was thinking of voting Lib Dem. Our task is to enthuse people like this to turn out for us. The 2nd person thought I was delivering takeaway leaflets and didn't want to take one. When I showed him I was delivering Focus leaflets, he still didn't want to take it because he never votes!

Meanwhile, we had an interesting discussion over lunch in Tesco cafe. Both Lib Dems and Labour will see some members retire in the local elections in May. However, the numbers of those retiring on the Labour side are significant. I have counted 15 so far - ie nearly a third of Labour councillors are retiring. This figure is just of those we are sure about. We think there are more in the pipeline. And as lunch breaks are good times to speculate further, we discussed what some Labour councillors may do in terms of moving from a ward under threat from the Lib Dems to one which could be a safer bet. Throw Reform into the situation and finding a safe Labour ward is quite a challenge!