It was great to see Danny Sweeney at our leaflet drop at Lewes railway station yesterday morning. He’s the parliamentary candidate for Lewes constituency, a role I was privileged to hold back in 2001. I don’t think I’d leafleted Lewes station since those far off days of the first Blair term, before 9/11, Twitter, or Donald Trump.
There are far fewer commuters than before Covid, a snapshot of our changing patterns of work and travel. We leafleted the queue waiting for the bus to Glyndboune: stage hands and sound engineers, I suspect, rather than opera singers. They get a helicopter.
I had an especially pleasing conversation with a voter who was a Green Party member but ‘lending’ her vote to Labour on 2 May. Like the leaflet says, it’s a two-horse race.
Later in the day the office of police and crime commissioner hosted a briefing session for candidates. This is the same as the ‘access talks’ the civil service is currently running for shadow ministers.
Three of the four candidates turned up, and heard presentations from senior police officers and managers. It was a reminder of the incredible complexity of policing in Sussex.
Everything from safeguarding Gatwick, to policing Pride, to burglary in Bognor, to shoplifting in Shoreham. Sussex police do an amazing job, and for ten years or more with one hand tied behind their backs.
