Canvassing On The Esplanade

Today (Sunday 10th May) Mark and a group of 15 local supporters hit the Esplanade to canvas voters ahead of the European Elections which are being held on 4th June. We were also joined by Therese Coffey who is standing as one of the Conservative South East candidates and it was great to have her with us on such a sunny day.

Canvassing on a Sunday is always a risky venture as a lot of people are either not at home, or simply have other things to be getting on with, and given today's wonderful weather we would not have been surprised if we managed to find only a handful of people willing to spend some of their valuable time answering questions on how they're planning to vote in the forthcoming elections.

But find them we did, and we were really glad to have come away with such a positive response. In the space of a couple of hours we managed to cover the entire Esplanade and found little or no support for Labour, but plenty for the Conservatives. For a lot of people, this election will not just be about selecting the party they want representing their interests in Europe, it will also be their first opportunity to deliver a verdict on Gordon Brown and the inept government he is imposing on this country. And we can tell you, judging by some of the comments we got today there are a LOT of angry people out there who are planning on wiping that grin off his face.

One gentleman we spoke to really didn't pull his punches. He runs a small business and is finding it really difficult in the current economic circumstances to keep things ticking over. The thing he was most angry about was the fact that, despite Gordon Brown's rhetoric about helping small businesses through the recession and the endless rhetoric on making the right decisions, the help that Labour say is being provided just doesn't exist. It's all just paper talk.

We've had policy announcement after policy announcement, promise after promise but the plain fact of the matter is that on the ground the help that this business needs like many others all over the country simply isn't there. It's all just empty promises and bluster from a failed government with a failed leader. Needless to say, he is planning on voting Conservative on June 4th.

We sincerely hope this business does manage to survive through the recession. The Conservative party have been calling for real help for small businesses like this man's from day one of the recession, but our calls for help have fallen on deaf ears and if this business does make it through the downturn then it will be in spite of Labour, not because of it.

This country needs real change, and on June 4th you can help deliver that change by getting out and voting Conservative.

Canvassing On The Esplanade