Day 2 of our Go Fourth tour of North Wales and Cheshire and it's been a great day. Peter Hain joined me campaigning in Clwyd West with our fantastic candidate Donna Hutton. But whilst I was in Ruthin, the local Tory MP, David Jones, thought he'd have a go on Twitter, saying my presence there actually helped him. My subsequent twitter exchange, which revealed he was actually in London and not in his constituency and highlighted the fact he received £15,000 from Ashcroft to buy the seat at the last election, made...
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Attended a great rally for Susan Elan Jones, our excellent PPC for Clwyd South last night in North Wales. Peter Hain gave a great speech on the damage a Tory Government would do to this country and the party members went away with a spring in their step. Then just at the end, news came in of the new YouGov tracker poll - the lead down to just three points. And from what I've heard on Twitter about The Sun's Kelvin MacKenzie's performance on Question Time I reckon we'll be level pegging...
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We're in Chirk on the Prescott Express for the start of a three day tour of North Wales and Cheshire marginals. Obviously, I try to respond to tweets and one asked me if I was going to Cornwall and Devon. As we're still working on the grid I mentioned the nearest date, Bristol a week on Saturday. This was picked up by a Matt Chorley, a hack on the Western Morning News - who doesn't even live in the Westcountry - trying to make out I was snubbing the area. He was being selective...
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Labour rescued High Speed 1 (the link to the Channel Tunnel) from collapse under the Tories and delivered it on budget and on time. It's proved to be highly successful. Now I'm delighted that High Speed 2 is being planned, and can only be delivered, by a Labour Government as the Tories are already quibbling about the route. This will at last connect the Midlands and the North by high speed rail to the South and Europe and finally fulfill an empty promise made by the Tories 20 years ago, which they failed to deliver....
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I'm spending most of my time back on the Battle Bus touring marginals and safer seats, getting supporters ready for the fight ahead. We've already campaigned in Reading, Leeds North West, Manchester Withington, and the North East. You can watch my interview on the NE Politics Show here (about 40mins in) This week we're off to North Wales and Cheshire visiting Ruthin, Holywell, Wrexham, Chirk, Crewe and Nantwich and Chester. But I'm expecting the real interest around my visit to a certain little seaside town just up the road from my birthplace...
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I do find it remarkable how people are taking on the Tories online. Back in the old days, Labour would hire an ad agency to devise a poster campaign which would cost us an absolute fortune and you'd question the results. Now Cameron's Tory posters (funded by Cashcroft's millions) are getting demolished by members of the public coming up with humorous rebuttlals. First there were the airbrush spoofs of THAT Cameron poster....
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Hello. Very busy today and looking forward to my tweet-up in Leeds after giving the closing speech at Yorkshire and Humber Labour conference. But thought you'd might like to see a peak at what I'm going to see. Here's the press release: Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will today fire the starting gun of the general election campaign by telling party activists Labour's team of underdogs can come from behind to clinch an historic fourth term. He'll also warn David Cameron "the general election is not for sale" and that Labour will "fight...
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We're back on the Prescott Express. Yesterday we went over to support Judith Blake in Leeds North West with a spot of tubthumping and canvassing in Headingly. Very warm reaction we're getting on the streets and the doorsteps though I get asked less about the egg and more about Gavin and Stacey - especially from the many students I met. Thanks to Labour Students for organising the event and looking forward to going back to Leeds tomorrow do the closing speech at Yorkshire and Humber Labour Conference then off to my #leedstweetup - 68 are turning...
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Looks like the net's closing in on Lord Ashcroft. When he was granted a peerage in 2000 he gave an undertaking that he would be a permanent UK resident. Since then every Tory leader has tried to fudge the issue over whether he's been as good as his word. I tried again today with Ashcroft's line manager but still no joy. Today's Guardian reveals that the Information Commissioner has had enough and wants a straight answer in 35 days. Perhaps Hague asked him on their last jaunt together to Cuba....
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I can't believe Cameron is repeating the same mistake by taking a well-reported tragic incident and attempting to twist it to his political advantage. You'll remember he was hammered for trying to attack Labour over the Karen Matthews affair. He made out that all people on benefits have the potential to fake their children's abduction to get money! Now he's done the same thing again, seizing on the Edlington, Doncaster attacks as being an example of the 'social recession' in Britain. Never mind that the parents of the attackers, as Ed Balls pointed out, were married....
Read 'Bad advice - or judgement' >