Weird Tweet of the Day – 11 August 2013

First there was this, as re-tweeted by Medway Council Labour group leader Councillor Vince Maple, of the original by council comrade Cllr Tristan Osborne...

"Big campaign team for @LabourSureStart @KentLabour today"

So far, so good – though the linked photograph (the second link in the original tweet: the first doesn't work) of the 'big campaign team' for Kent Labour (not just the parliamentary seat) comprised just seven people. Let's be generous and assume the photographer was an eighth participant.

They didn't say where they were, but I identified the location as the shopping parade in Larkfield, so – slightly cheekily, I suppose – I tweeted this, not to them though, so I clearly wasn't trying to tease or rattle them...

"I see that Medway & Aylesford Labour's "big campaign team" of seven (plus cameraman?) is in Larkfield today. Should be peaceful round my way"

It was peaceful, by the way, though local Labour don't generally wate their time in the Close where I live, as they have little support here (I've been checking regularly ever since I moved here).

Then, some time later in the day, Chatham and Aylesford Labour – the association for the parliamentary seat that includes Larkfield – tweeted this almost impenetrable tweet...

"Constituency campaign team: we don't need to 'merge' with safe Tory seats to get the numbers."

Ah, so they are no longer 'Kent Labour' but just the constituency. The only way one can read this is that it is a change of tack to camouflage the lack of an effective campaign force. Not that I'd expect any part of Labour to 'merge with safe Tory seats' anyway...

When I think back to the numerous occasions on which I was out with either the Conservative association for the same constituency, or for the one next door for that matter (my former home moved from one to the other with boundary changes in 2003), the normal turnout was between twenty and thirty – not always, but much more often than not. There might be the odd one or two from outside the association, but they were more likely to be possible new recruits to the party than 'outsiders'.

We did not consider those numbers to be particularly 'big', though they were pleasing. This would apply ahead of or during general elections, local elections, and council by-elections. I witnessed much of it personally, including in a by-election in Cllr Osborne's own ward, for example one such group meeting up in Luton Recreation Ground.

I have posted another tweet, again not to any of the (at least five) Twitter accounts run by local Labour, this time simply to comment that I 'seem to have touched a nerve'; and shall keep this post in draft for a day or so to give them a chance to response if they so choose.

UPDATE: They didn't come back at me, even after more than a day, I suspect because this time they have even less they can say than their half-hearted and somewhat desperate first attempt, so I am now publishing this post.