1 days to go…

THE ESCAPE HATCH

SO here we are, the 1 day to go post. Hours to go, really. On the eve of the election, there surely should be a note for the 13 councillors who are stepping down and the shift – most of them – have put in.

Whatever the disagreements between the parties, whatever the disagreements with the press, my own view is that the work which local politicians get through often goes unnoticed, or at least goes under-appreciated.

While some people see our reporting as stirring or even harmful, the aim is actually rooted in getting people to value public services and to be more aware of what councillors do. I think it’s sad so few residents even know who their local councillor is. I hope reporting in the CNJ what they say and do in the council chamber, and adding a bit of character on this blog hopes in some small way.

Sometimes you think that you are going to a lot of meetings as a reporter, but then you can look around the room and think some of the these councillors are here every night. I wonder whether the new councillors-to-be really know what they are getting into. In the CNJ tomorrow, departing councillors pass on some pearls of advice.

And they are not all doing it as a stepping stone to become an MP. We are all very cynical about politicians of all level, often with good reason. Some of them however, as twee as it sounds, just want to help.

Goodbye and good luck to the ones who found the escape hatch. Share its location with the rest of us sometime.

SHIRTY SADIQ

THERE’S no need to give too much more space to Sadiq Khan’s eve-of-election appearance in Fortune Green today. Ten weeks without coming to Kentish Town, he seemed to love playing the star guest on the other side of the borough. When asked about NW5, he got, for want of a better word, shirty and said that he wouldn’t be visiting to “make the Camden New Journal happy” and other naff things.

He must have been scarred by the press in the past to react like that, unable to consider for a moment that a community often uses its local newspaper to express how it feels. It was surprising to hear he was so curt, accusing journalists of trying to “make political capital” out of the Camden murders. If we all wanted to be smash-and-grab tabloid hacks we’d have left years ago. He really has not got a clue what motivates the reporters here.

 

THE VOTES TO PLAY FOR

THIS might be interesting for the spotters. Here are the total number of votes up for grabs in each ward tomorrow, the actual registered electorate by area. Might explain why the winners lay down some heavy scoring in St Pancras and Somers Town.

HAMPSTEAD TOWN 7603

HIGHGATE 8215

FROGNAL AND FITZJOHNS 7564

FORTUNE GREEN 8786

WEST HAMPSTEAD 8900

KILBURN 8737

SWISS COTTAGE 9192

BELSIZE 8661

GOSPEL OAK 7846

KENTISH TOWN 9624

CANTELOWES 8494

HAVERSTOCK 8818

CAMDEN TOWN WITH PRIMROSE HILL 9001

REGENTS PARK 8721

ST.PANCRAS AND SOMERS TOWN 9997

KINGS CROSS 6632

BLOOMSBURY 5807

HOLBORN AND COVENT GARDEN 8555

TOTAL 151,153

THANKS

Finally, thanks for reading the election (almost) daily over these past 44 days and all the nice comments. Now go out and vote…

 

 

FLASHBACK

One last spin of the time machine, has to be the winning team shots from the last three council elections: 2006, 2010 and 2014… who will be in this year’s version at breakfast on Friday?