Unexpected correspondence. And getting around on the bus again.

I live in the North West of England. This is the start of an email I received yesterday from the Labour Party:

“Hi Anthea,

My name is ……………. and I am the Acting Regional Director for West Midlands Labour. You might think it’s a bit odd that I am emailing you, given that you don’t live in the West Midlands, but I have a huge favour to ask you.

This Thursday there is a parliamentary by-election in North Shropshire. This by-election was caused by the resignation of Owen Patterson over the second jobs scandal.

I am emailing to ask if you can come over and give us a hand for a few hours on the day, to help us by delivering leaflets or knocking on doors. If you can’t make it over, you can join the national phonebank to remind voters to come out and vote Labour.”

The writer is not wrong to say that I might think it a bit odd. Don’t they have members in North Shropshire to call on? Goodness, I’m afraid I don’t even go knocking on doors in our own neck of the woods, let alone going over to a place I’ve never been to. What the writer doesn’t know is that I’m getting more than a little disenchanted with the whole business.

I suspect they are feeling a shortfall of campaigners as more and more people give up their membership of the party. As a rule I would say that the Tories don’t have problems of that nature but just at the moment a lot of their longstanding members are giving out rumblings of discontent. We are certainly living in interesting times.

I’m just letting them get on with it and hoping that the whole Covid thing doesn’t erupt any further. However, despite supposed reassurances that the new variant is perhaps not as previous ones, there is still a strong chance of the hospitals being overwhelmed. We’ll just quietly continue with our Christmas stuff and hope it doesn’t get cancelled on us.

I’ve been out and about this morning, picking up some essentials from the supermarket. Unlike yesterday, the buses seem to be following their normal route today but my bus did get stuck in a queue of traffic leaving Uppermill, a hold-up caused by roadworks traffic lights changing from red to green to red to green at approximately five second intervals. It’s a wonder we didn’t have a road rage incident.

On the whole the buses seem to be fairly empty - those who can do so must be using their cars - apart from at school transport times. Most people are complying with the mask wearing rules, apart that is from a number the aforementioned school kids. But even then, most of them have accepted mask wearing as a new normal.

We’ll see how it goes. Now I have Christmas present to wrap.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!