Tag Archives: jo swinson east dunbartonshrie

Out on the campaign trail with Jo Swinson

The Spectator’s Isabel Hardman went up to East Dunbartonshire to go campaigning with Jo Swinson recently. Her piece is pretty balanced and fair and gives quite an insight into Jo on the campaign trail

Now, I know what a whirlwind Jo is and how much work she gets through and how many doors she knocks on. I went across to help many times during the 2005 campaign. She was so disciplined and even if she met her own high targets, she wasn’t happy unless she’d done even more.

Her campaigning experience comes across in Hardman’s profile as does her name recognition:

Swinson is also a proper local campaigner. Everyone we meet seems to have had a problem that she’s sorted out. ‘You fixed my drains!’ is something several householders exclaim as they open the door (they mean she got the council to do it, I assume, though Swinson does tell one man she used to be a girl guide, which makes me wonder if she has actually personally fixed some drains too). Even the voters who aren’t backing her say ‘I’ve got to say, you do a lot for this area. Well done.’

She also behaves like someone used to pounding pavements. When we’re knocking on doors in a sheltered housing complex, she makes sure that the fire doors don’t swing noisily shut after her, instead shutting them gently herself. This is the sort of thing people who don’t bother to knock on doors very often don’t do, because they don’t realise how much striding noisily through someone else’s property annoys them.

Hardman reckons Labour MPs are so non-plussed because they’ve never had to campaign, but it’s clearly Jo’s forte.

Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
Advert



Recent Comments

  • Jenny Barnes
    It reminds me of the probably apocryphal story of a fairly new MP talking to an old-timer in the bar : " The trouble with this place is there are far too many @...
  • Roland
    @Mary, not to diminish the individual successes, but wolf in sheep’s clothing does come to mind, ie. The party wants to be electable, but doesn’t want to do...
  • Joseph Bourke
    Whatever the outcome of the US election, it is clear that US foreign policy will be increaaingly focused on protecting US interests in Asia and the middle-east...
  • Martin Gray
    @Cath...SMP - Businesses claim most of it back . Taking off one taxpayer to give to another .. And yes you're correct in regards to the last paragraph - I'm sur...
  • Catherine Crosland
    Martin Gray, "Women's issues"? Kemi Bradenoch recently implied that she thought rights to maternity pay and maternity leave had gone too far, although many mot...