30 years ago today, I woke up before the crack of dawn to go and deliver Good Morning leaflets for the Littleborough and Saddleworth by-election.  I spent the rest of the day knocking up  – and getting chased and shouted at by Labour people in the process.

I also remember spending some time telling and chatting to some lovely people from other parties, including a young Conservative who had a huge cut on his neck from what I understand was a shaving incident.

It was a great experience.

Bob and I had been there several times during the campaign. We had nipped in for a couple of days at the start of our Summer holiday which we had planned to spend touring around the North West and we actually spend the whole week there under the watchful eye of the wonderful and inimitable Pat Wainwright. Before we left, we went and bought some plates and cutlery for the HQ because they had none.

We made several return trips during the campaign and I took the last few days off work.

That campaign was when I really got to know the much loved and missed Erlend Watson. The day before polling day, I walked into HQ and, after they checked I could drive, I was handed the keys of a transit van and sent out with Erlend to repair and replace our posters which had been vandalised by nefarious forces. Now, a transit van was way beyond my comfort zone. At that time I had a mini metro and I was such a nervous driver that I’d often do whatever I could to avoid turning right.

But with Erlend beside me, we set off in this massive transit van and, miraculously, after much hilarity, returned in one piece.

I also met Pam Tilson, who then worked as an organiser for the party. We had a particularly fun afternoon off from campaigning in the pub. We recently caught up when she was over in Edinburgh and had a good reminisce about those golden times.

Colin Rosenstiel and his family were there, too and I think he persuaded me on to Cix.

Gina Ford, who then worked for Malcolm Bruce, and I drove round one of the most rural delivery rounds during the Wimbledon final, catching snippets of the tennis on the radio when signal allowed.

That was a by-election with no minivan, no internet, no smartphones, no Google maps. We had paper canvass cards – although I’m fairly sure they were generated by EARS, the predecessor to Connect rather than pasted on bits of the electoral roll as we had to use in my first campaign.

That campaign was important because we had to show that we still had it against a resurgent Labour Party. Peter Mandelson himself had come up to run their campaign and it was a huge thing for us that we beat him. That was despite an audacious stunt by the Daily Mirror either on the day of or the day before the election. They produced a “Vote Labour” front page. Though it was generic and didn’t mention the constituency at all, the fact that it was on every newsagent shelf – and given away free if I remember correctly – in the constituency was an unmistakeable campaign ploy that pushed the law as far as it could go. Though it may have been a mistake to make them free, though. There seemed to be a lot of Lib Dems with multiple copies, though.

It was such a fun campaign. Do share your memories – and particularly your photos.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social