Do we have the record for the greatest number of new party leaders in two years?   At least we can now settle down and get to business - getting our message across and persuading residents to vote for us.  I’ve just been helping at a Christmas party for gentlemen who live at a rehabilitation hostel in Manchester. 

It’s part of my day-job as a teacher, not my political hobby - something we do, as a college, each year.  I was there to support my students who were helping our guests to have a lovely meal and enjoy carols, turns and bingo. One of the care workers and I recognised each other - I leaflet her home regularly.  She tries each year to get her husband and son to vote - they don’t and we had a really positive conversation about how difficult it is to get people to believe that their vote is vitally important and by voting for us we can make a difference. 

She’s a great lady, one of the ‘Joans’ of life - she works hard caring for the home’s residents and enabling them to move on with their lives, she has her family and looks after her Dad too.  She’s the lady who lives next door to us - or that we hope that she does - the lady who is always there to lend a hand and always be pleasant and cheerful.  Not somebody who expects everybody else to do everything and them to do nothing. 

It was a special evening - it always is.  Being elderly comes to us all and hostels such as this that work so hard to help are so few and poorly funded - we need to do more to help them to do more.  Our leader has a lot of work to do to help us to do this.