Campaign round-up: 18 - 25 April

Liberal Democrat candidate, Jill Wareham, has had a hectic campaign schedule since the General Election campaign, meeting residents, doing interviews with local media, attending hustings and responding to the many emails that have come in. Here is a round-up of some of Jill's activities.

Sunday 18th April

Jill visited the 'Bustival' at Havenstreet Steam Railway. "It was great to see the first posters and adverts for the 2011 Island Games," says Jill, who is organising the tennis event in the Games.

Jill trained as a swimming official, timekeeper and judge, some years ago when her youngest daughter was a competitive swimmer. Jill continues to help at swimming gala and was pleased to be able to help on Sunday evening at the Isle of Wight Swimming Championships. "It is fantastic to see so many young people (over 100) between the age of 10 and 22 taking part in this swimming gala," says Jill.

Monday 19th April

Jill spent much of the day responding to the many questions coming in by email and then going to talk to local residents while canvassing and delivering leaflets.

Isle of Wight Radio requested an interview about the damage to party posters. "It is a shame that people have damaged posters," says Jill. "Putting up posters is part of an election campaign and it is particularly alarming for people to feel threatened in the knowledge that people had been onto their property to vandalize the posters."

Tuesday 20th April

BBC Radio Solent held a live debate in the square outside Morrisons in Ryde. Questions were submitted by members of the public and the candidates attending were given the opportunity to respond. Questions varied from 'how will you tackle the deficit' to 'what did you think of the school re-organisation'. Jill is supportive of the change to the two tier system but was disappointed that it had not been started in 2005 when the funds were in place.

"Since that time there had been at least 5 Directors of Education and several U turns by the Tories in deciding what to do with education," says Jill. "The management of the re-organisation by the Council was appalling and the application for capital funds from government had been rejected. Staff, particularly in middle schools, were very anxious about their future and there was still a great lack of communication between the centre and schools."

Thursday 22nd April

Even more emails flooded in for Jill to answer, which she followed with more canvassing and leafleting - talking to local people about the issues that concern them.

In the evening the Countryside Land and Business Association hosted a hustings at the Royal Yacht Squadron. This was attended by about 30 people and six candidates. Questions were primarily about agriculture and landowners.

Friday 23rd April

The day after the second Prime Ministerial debate. "There was plenty of interest from local people as I went round canvassing and leafleting," says Jill. "Nick Clegg's message that we can do something different this time is resonating with local people."

Saturday 24th April

Jill and colleagues spent time in Newport leafleting and talking to people, receiving lots of support.

Jill attended the St. George's Day event at Northwood Park and had the opportunity to talk to many people about different issues. Northwood House trustees were in attendance and talked about their ongoing discussions with the Isle of Wight Council about the car park revenue.

The final event Jill attended was another St George's celebration at Lake Middle School. "This was a first for Lake Parish Council and proved to be a successful event," says Jill.

Sunday 25th April

Jill attended the Garden Show at Robin Hill which was bustling with people and had a great variety of arts and crafts, plants, machinery, food and charity stalls on offer. Jill had the opportunity to talk to small businesses and to see old friends and received offers of help and many comments of support.

In the evening, Jill took time off from campaigning to officiate at the second part of the Isle of Wight Swimming Championships held at Medina.