Lawrie Quinn - 2005 Election Diary

The death of Pope John Paul has affected so many people and all the political parties have put on hold the expected campaigning across the country after a visit to the Palace.

I need a hair cut before things start and take the opportunity to visit my barber en route to London. At 7.30 a.m. I'm Chris's first customer. After a swift short back and sides with detailed discussion of my barber's wife's recent excellent treatment at the local hospital, I set off to York railway station for my journey down the East Coast main line to London.

My day at Westminster with Clare and Jessi is spent focusing on outstanding constituents cases the oldest case which has been in session since 1999 ....the file is a good 75 mm thick. Since 1997, my Westminster office manager Clare tells Jessi, the US intern from Boston University, we've notched up almost 25 000 constituent direct contacts, requests for information and specific cases....that's where the time went!

Work & Pensions questions...a meeting in the FCO with Jack Straw's team....more office work...the Wales Ombudsman Bill attracts some procedural attention in the Chamber.....dinner with my boss Douglas, Minister for Trade...collect my bag from the members cloakroom before the short walk to my flat opposite Westminster Cathedral ...as I enter it around 22.45 I note the debris of the media have left in the street from the service for the Pope earlier in the day...time to reflect, prepare for bed and sleep!

It's 6.30 a.m. here I am back at Kings Cross awaiting Education Minister Derek Twigg for the journey back to Scarborough & Whitby...Derek's visiting two Scarborough schools that have seen great improvement since 1997. ....Barrowcliff Primary and newly specialist sports college, Pindar School....both have great headteachers....new computers, buildings and great community spirit...Dave and Hugh are examples of what good leadership in schools has delivered...I'm really proud and the Minister is impressed.....but time...as ever too short....

....around midday we find that the Prime Minister has been to the Palace and the General Election is Thursday 5th May...

...we've got to return to Westminster for expected votes at 19.00 hrs...we just make it for about 19.05.....a really positive uplifting day....conversations over the phone with my Agent Ian about events planned for later in the week...he needs to organise an adoption meeting on Saturday so I can formally become the candidate...Whitby campaign office fully functional...windows dressed with posters in both offices 22 miles apart...introductory leaflets circulated for delivery....and I've got at least until Thursday before I can go back north to join in......more constituency casework.

....ever since I first came to London as the assistant resident engineer for roofworks at Liverpool Street in the mid-eighties one of my personal pleasures has been the ability to buy tomorrow's newspapers from mainline stations from about 10.30 at night...I collect a Sun and a Times before retiring to my flat about 11 p.m.

....that was a 500 mile plus, hundreds of people and a minister on the patch type of day!

Start to think about the logistics of moving key documents back north....yes I'll have to hire a car ...deliver...the drop off...Clare puts arrangements in hand with Europacar at Victoria...

Last PMQs...prepare myself a question about Transport spending in Yorkshire so I can highlight the need for A64 improvements to the Yorkshire Coast...spend 30 minutes trying to catch the Speaker's eye....bobbing up and down...with no success....after the Party leaders Michael Martin prefers to call colleagues who are retiring from Parliament in less than a weeks time...I suppose I've got an above average record at getting called into questions ... about twice a week.

Travel in taxi to Victoria station with Douglas to get a meeting on the move...he's off to Stirling via Gatwick for BBC Question Time and I've got more PPS duties whilst he's away from Westminster...the promised flood of night time divisions as the "wash up period" gets going sees 31 Bills turn to 17 pieces of legislation ...including the fastest ever Finance Act ever!

I'm really disappointed to hear at a meeting in the DTI that the Consumer Credit Bill which reformed this part of the domestic financial sector has been "washed out"...a good 9 months work from the DTI team hits the buffers with ID cards and Racial Motivated crimes to name but 3 of the 14 laws not making it before Parliament is dissolved...

....back to flat via Victoria station news stand around 11.15 p.m...tomorrow Scarborough & Whitby and the campaign calls....

...collect hire car around 10.30 a.m. ...pack up boxes of documents from Westminster office...a few goodbyes and good lucks ....more constituent case work...back to flat for personal luggage...off we go....

...around 1 p.m. remember I need some breakfast...pull into Newport Pagnell service station on the M1...seeing John Prescott's battlebus going south a few minutes before inspired me to ring the Scarborough office to see how things were going as I tackled a beef and ale pie...mistake...the rest of my journey was punctuated by phone calls....this reminded me of my days back on site ...thankfully the mobile phones are smaller but inbound calls inevitably are longer and my desire to be lawful means I end up inspecting the car parks of every other motorway service station for the next 4 hours ....Intercity rail travel is never like this!

Around midnight I remember the congestion charge ...too late...and my wife Ann reminds me of several domestic duties I need to accomplish on Friday....I go the sleep in the early hours of the morning in my bed at home with no newspapers, but a mental list of the day ahead and a flick through this week's NCE...apparently there's an Election!

Scarborough...and the sea

Early trip to my Scarborough office to drop of my payload from Westminster...return the hire car....speak to Transport for London's Congestion Chargeline...explain to Ann about the £ 50m excess charge...check domestic task list with her...arrive back in Scarborough office about 9.30 a.m.

Quick meeting with my Agent Ian about arrangements for Saturday...three hours constituency casework...prep for adoption meeting...discussion about campaign diary for Monday...personal reflections on the Pope's funeral...produce press release for Saturday's events...remember it's my wedding anniversary on Sunday and I'm scheduled to travel to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to appear live on the Northern BBC's Politics Show at lunchtime Sunday...attend to domestic issues...then travel the 22 miles northwards to Whitby....

...The BBC have asked me to appear in a constituency profile piece and at 2 p.m. we meet up in a northerly gale on the Whitby Abbey Headland....excellent backdrop of Abbey and Whitby Town and a very turbulent North Sea crashing through the Victorian harbour sea defences and piers...oh yes and me outlining the key policy issues for Scarborough and Whitby...especially my hope that Whitby will achieve UNESCO world heritage status to build on the economic growth in the area in the last 8 years .

Ann says she never expects me home at the time I stated but adds at least 4 hours and prepares food accordingly...after more case work in the office...travel home....we ate dinner around 8.45 p.m. ...apparently I was sent to bed around 10.15.

Early riser Quinn here again.....to do the NCE diary and to do some prep for the adoption meeting later...we've got Rodney Bickerstaff, President of the Pensioners Convention supporting my Adoption Meeting at the Stephen Joseph Theatre...carefully timed to be over before the Royal Wedding and the Grand National......We're preparing for at least two ministerial visits next week...lots of street door-to-door contact work...I need to find a few hours to finalise my MP casework before 5 p.m. on Monday...and I must find an anniversary card...decide where I'm taking Ann for a celebration dinner to mark 23 years of very happy and sometimes hectic married life......

April 10th - 15th

Why am I sat at Durham Tees Valley Airport at 9.30 on a Sunday night ? Not any Sunday night but my wedding anniversary...Ann reminds me that 18 of our 23 anniversaries marriage have fallen into election periods...oh yes the election!

Trains, boats and planes...the Nation's transport policy under the personal attention of senior politicians as they go from marginal seat to marginal seat. Durham Tees Valley Airport on a soggy Sunday, celebrating 23 happy years of wedded bliss and meeting and greeting Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael so we can make a campaigning start on Monday at 9.30 exactly!

Joan a committed Labour member stuffing all those envelopes

At 9.30 exactly, Monday 11th April, Alun opens my campaign centre in Whitby...he's impressed with the place we've got....a short let on a former restaurant called Joshua's. Ribbons cut. Photos taken. Press interviews done. Onto the streets of Scarborough and Whitby. Meet and greet constituents in Scarborough and Whitby....22 miles apart more transport policy analysis.....rural business development issues and workplace learning representatives discussed...what a difference since 1997.

Alun is pleased with our slick machine which factored in "transport delays"....he calls me from the Airport to say he's there an hour early and glad he came. I continue knocking on doors and meeting people in Scarborough interrupted by the occasional call about our next key campaigner visit on Wednesday.

Anyone who discusses Whitby with me is staggered that our community is not a UNESCO World Heritage site...I've been campaigning with local people, the Bishop of Whitby and the former Archbishop of York to put this right. Tessa Jowell is coming straight from the Labour Party Manifesto launch in London to hear about our bid.

Tessa arrives 90 minutes late. I introduce her to the patient community representatives gathered at St. Mary's, Whitby in the shadow of Whitby Abbey....I recall the journey from London to Whitby in the 17th Century...Ros our Town's expert historian tells me the journey took 4 days by coach with the risk of bumping into Dick Turpin en route...Tessa's taken 4 hours to do 250 miles...progress of a kind...we could do better and Tessa outlines the impact of threatened Tory cuts on transport spend.....more praise for the UNESCO bid...press photos and an interview or two with local radio...walk round the town...meet and greet...off to the wonderful Magpie Fish Restaurant...World Class!...The Secretary State for Culture Media and Sport said so!.

....Visitors leave around 8.30 p.m. for a trip across the Moors in the pouring rain back to GNER for Kings Cross... I have a team meeting until 9.30 before going home to Ann at the cottage....the ministerial party arrives London just before 1 am...I thought Dick Turpin was sorted out at the Knavesmire in York centuries ago...memo to Tony McNulty ask BT Police to check out highwaymen on the line...stand and deliver!

Thursday and Friday morning was spent talking to local folk in Eastfield, Mayfield and Fishburn Park.. School gate visits and the pure fun of seeing my American intern, Matt from the LSE handing out balloons to 5 year old...he did say he was studying politics...I demonstrate my skills at inflating balloons as the kids scream for red ones not yellow...he's thinking about doing a thesis on inflation, childcare and string management techniques...a Nobel prize in the making!

Around 3.30, Friday 15th April awaiting arrival of Uncle Frank at Scarborough railway station... Frank Dobson is a very old friend, loves the Yorkshire Coast and has travelled up for the weekend to do the marginal Yorkshire seats tour...walk around town centre...great reception...bump into my Tory opponent with a Tory MEP in tow...Frank was frank about the fact he recognised neither face behind the blue rosettes....local newspaper photographers get a scoop...pics of local candidates with a famous beard and a not so famous MEP...we're a bit sceptical about Europe at the coast tha' kno's....


They all want red ones of course!	Lawrie and Frank, listening to the people

Street work in Cayton in the rain with Frank, then northwards by car to Whitby...en route we're told the Government Chief Whip, Hilary Armstrong is meeting us at Joshua's ...I mean my Whitby campaign HQ....Frank orders fish by phone before the local fish mongers closes...4 nice sea bass.

Lawrie Quinn, Hilary Armstrong and Frank Dobson

Frank likes Joshua's ...Hilary is joining us at a meeting in the Whitby Seamen's Mission about International Development and the heaven's open up again ...the meeting is useful... Larry Whitty arrives for the last 20 minutes hot foot from London via Scarborough...he's campaigning with us on Saturday.

Tessa's obviously been spreading the word about the wonderful Magpie ....Frank departs westwards with Sea Bass, the contents of the best fish supper in his belly and another day is over by 10 p.m. ... ....we go home via the Whitby Co-op collecting the ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast before we hit the streets of Whitby and Scarborough again....the rain hasn't stopped since about 6.45...the 7 miles back through the localised flooding stimulates another memo to Elliot Morley and the Environment Agency about global warming...fortunately our cottage is 300 metres away from the coastline, even though it's called Seaview!

Ann tries to tell me about her day at School...I fall asleep on the sofa...must be all that meetin and greetin ?

Week ending 22nd April: 3 Peers and a technical problem or six!

Waking up after a storm in the North Yorks Moors is like walking into the most fragrant flower shop you could imagine...unfortunately last night the waste water system in our village was over loaded and the smell in the air was rather different .

Fish supper, nothing better!

In the general rush of sharing a platform with Frank Dobson and Hilary Armstrong about International Development at the Seaman's Mission in Whitby, an excellent dinner at the world famous Magpie fish restaurant with Frank and trying to keep dry in a 1 in 200 year downpour my bag with keys, documents and other personal effects like my appointments diary has travelled to York with the car sent for Frank. I attempt access into my Scarboro office after an 18 mile early morning drive from my village. After 10 minutes ringing the doorbell my elections co-ordinator opens the door a quick search proves that my bag along with Frank and 4 sea bass are 48 miles away in Yorkshire's capital city.

Its now 8.50 am....I'm told I should be on the street in Whitby with a dozen campaign volunteers and Agriculture Minister, Lord Larry Whitty.....around an hour later I'm suited, rosetted and shaking hands ...Early morning is the best time to meet local people in a fishing port like Whitby...the visitors start to fill the streets after 11am morning coffee... ...they have votes too these "com'forts"....a local Yorkshire term of affection for our guests....that's right "they only come for the day "! Memo to Tourism minister about sustainable tourism...Whitby is working, parking is a lottery.

Visits to a coffee morning for the local Hospice gets me breakfast around noon and then I attend the Alzheimer's Society AGM...can't manage lunch...south to meet with Lord Larry for door knocking in Whitby...we're joined by Hilary Armstrong too.........

...Whitby is working after six attempts around 8pm Hilary and I with partners enter Whitby's finest Italian restaurant for our evening meal. Alessi's doesn't have restricted access Saturday's busy year round tourist honey-pot means that every one of the 5 other restaurants we've tried are fully booked....Hilary decides she's got to come back to try the others...so much for me losing weight in my campaign....the pasta is superb!

Up again early Sunday...there are no days of rest in an Election. I'm footing a 30 foot ladder at 8am for John who is fixing a huge laminated VOTE LABOUR advert onto the gable end of a property near the entrance to Scarborough's branch of Sainsbury's......30% of local journeys go past this spot every weekday!

I remembered the thousands of vertical trips in my days as a resident engineer, John is doing well...then a passing constituent lobbies me about the working time directive as it affects lorry drivers....John completes his handiwork , I get another promised vote and the VOTE LABOUR sign looks fine.

En route back to Whitby I pass the garden stake team of John and his daughter Julia...momentum is building and Julia is pleased the ladders are not needed again ....I'm glad volunteers like Julia and John are giving up their weekend to support me like this .....even if she prefers me to do the important bit at the foot of a ladder!

Red balloons come top again!

Sunday afternoon is a good day to catch local people at home...the weather is fine and over a thousand people get a visit from me or the 50 or so volunteers who are working the neighbourhoods of Whitby and Scarborough...we have to send runners back to the offices for extra posters...the sunshine means people are in their gardens...pleased to talk and their children get the long lazy day punctuated with exploding red and yellow campaign balloons, stickers ...there's a positive buzz in the air.

They say that campaigning is about eye to eye contact with the electorate...my campaign strategy seeks to get me to meet at least 500 people each day of the campaign ...from 10 am until 10pm I hardly see the inside of the campaign offices...I easily travel over a hundred miles a day driven by volunteers Sandy and Dave...ever since Neil Kinnock had that car accident in the early 1980's ..Labour has insisted its candidates are driven and accompanied during a campaign...the days are long...I'm generally doing prep from 5am until we hit the road for a mid-morning breakfast break before more street work..

Timings are tight especially if we have visiting high profile supporters ...this week the excellent company of Lord Penry and Lord Burlinson ...both called Tom ....adds to the colour of the campaign, excites my volunteers...Lord Tom P was a boxer and specialises in Tourism and Lord Tom B a professional footballer and knows a lot about the Home office...they're experienced campaigners and drive me to my daily voter contact targets. As former sportsmen they also help me do over 8 miles each day...one of the Lord Toms has a pedometer!

On Tuesday evening I join Dave on a trip to the Riverside to see Boro against Fulham ...a dull game punctuated by text messages....I've silenced my mobile so I can concentrate on the game...after my arrival back at the cottage I discover an email to say that arrangements for Wednesday need to change...I go to bed after 1.30am Wednesday following a reworking of the diary due to start four hours later...is anyone really reading my emails at this time of night in Labour's national campaign HQ in Victoria Street in Westminster?

Waking up to a very loud seagull orchestrated...is that how it's spelt ?...dawn chorus...I check my emails...yup those fine people have approved the programme re-write for the day....Minister for Trade, Douglas Alexander is due to visit the UK's deepest mine ...the Boulby Potash mine at the northernmost end of the constituency...management, workers and the local community in Staithes are extremely impressed....2 hours well spent.

.....a further 40 minute drive sees us rush into the world class Scarborough Stephen Joseph Theatre to meet Sir Alan Ayckbourne for a pre-shoe drink and discussion about the creative industries...I nominate Alan for Queen's Award to Industry...he's one of our local economy's biggest export successes and his Theatre attracts millions of pounds of visitor revenue into the Yorkshire Coast..

.....after a very fine but too quick dinner in the Theatre restaurant...we apologise to the Chef for the rush and I accompany Douglas to York on the 45 minute rail journey to York for his onward journey to Scotland...Douglas is my boss, I'm his PPS and I'm flattered to hear his role in the national campaign means apart from his own constituency in Paisley he's only planning to try to fit in a return trip back to Scarborough & Whitby before Election Day...it's only 8.30pm and I'm glad that my wife Ann met us at York with the car so we could relax over a soft drink in the station bar before Douglas heads north...what a great day!

Meeting and greeting - and listening

Walking around large former council estates is crucial to my voter contact work....campaigning should be fun and I always collect a clutch of anecdotes which are useful for future speeches...this campaign is not disappointing me as a stimulus for my speech writing...just imagine what I felt about this short exchange in Cayton....

....Pat, one of my key volunteer workers, calls me to have a door step chat with an 85 year old pensioner..."This gentleman wants to talk to you about television"....I walk from footpath up the 30 metre garden path trying to remember policy on the BBC, Jerry Springer controversies and the story lines of the main soaps.....the old boy is charming...he's supporting me...Pat's told him I'm an Engineer...."so what do you want to ask me about TV" I say...." not TV...my TV" he's says smiling back...." I've knackered SKY and she says you solve problems...can you fix it?"...5 minutes later I emerge ...SKY is working...my poster is in pride of place in the window and I'm grinning.....

"So what happened ?" says Pat...."Well he'd not switched to power supply on at the wall.....he thinks we should have more Engineers in Parliament!"

Tomorrow promises Goths in Whitby...more street work and a Sunday full of regional media over in Leeds...only 12 days to go...I love it!

Week ending Sat 30 April

Media interviews, another anniversary......a playskool crisis and a pensioners' lunchtime dance!

Something of the night?

Once of Whitby's many claims to fame is the association with Bram Stoker, the author of the Dracula stories.

Just to bore the reader we also have a long association with English literature from the Anglo-Saxon 7th century poet Caedmon, through Lewis Carroll right up to modern writers like Graham Taylor, who currently sells well in North America as alternative to the JK Rowling genre.

Yes the World Heritage bid is deeply based on cultural foundations ...oh yes...Dracula.....

The Bram Stoker novels have the evil Count arrive in the thick mists of 19th Century Whitby before he gets his teeth stuck into things...ironic when you think of our recent problems recruiting dentists for the Yorkshire Coast!

Anyway the legend has made Whitby the official home for Goths of the world....and this weekend is the first Goth festival of 2005 in Whitby....check the Whitby tourism information if you're interested in the second weekend later in the year and you fancy yourself in stylish black, often leather clothes, like a party and understand life is too short to go around in collar and tie.......If you'd gar'like a stake in the Goth lifestyle....Whitby is for you!

OF COURSE.....the General Election.....we thought that John Prescott would fit in with such colour ...his battlebus was scheduled to drop in too and the chemistry was mouth watering...also the world's best fish and chips were on offer....sadly the bus got re-routed regarded as a positive endorsement of my campaign so far and JP's in leathers will have wait until later in the year!

Lawrie with enthusiastic helpers

Instead the campaign was flooded with Labour students from Hull and Durham University Labour Clubs, campaigners from the North East and South Yorkshire....I hope it was the Labour campaign message that drew over 60 extra pairs of hands into the campaign...Voter contact, leafleting and the focus of every General Election campaign I've ever done the Saturday morning street stall ...Up early to get locals residents and fewer com'forts and Goths from as far away as Norway!

In celebration of Goth weekend our Michael Howard life-size cut-out is dressed as Dracula...Something about the night....Fangs for those Tory memories....a national freelance photographer gets the joke and the dark count returns to Whitby.....and a new organisation Goths for Labour is born....you can't beat a bit of humour!

My wife, Ann and I make the journey over to Leeds to do regional media interviews for BBC Radio and TV....the hours of driving and time in the studios until 3pm make me feel detached from my campaign and the hundred or so people out on the streets of Scarborough and Whitby on my behalf....it's part of the strategy to get our message out and I wish a cloak and bat like arrive in Whitby....the Sunday travel to the coast is typical...memo to Alistair Darling...ask the Goths how they do it...appear then ....vanish....often in up market cars and collar and ties.....make-up free!

Join a campaign team out at Eastfield in Scarborough just after 3pm...the mood is positive, the estate's gardens are full of local people and my 8 years as their MP stimulates demand for posters.....that's the way to end a good weekend...well, actually we finished around 9pm in Scarborough's finest Indian restaurant just Ann and me...she gets a rose on departure ...I get the best wishes of the restaurant owner....back north to the cottage and my sleepy sofa.

Clare and Linda working hard

Full days. Prep from 5am . On the campaign trail by 9am. Campaign breakfasts and lunches. Late night dinners, Hustings meetings at Whitby Community College. More doorstep work, leafleting and an increasingly happier but sleepier campaign team....Stressful campaign years have claimed at least 3 heart attacks, several dog bites, strained wrists, cut fingers and sprained ankles amongst the team...School gate balloons given out over a thousand.....Parent magazines and letters about child friendly problems 400 plus....statistics are crucial to more political campaigning and the boys and girls at Labour head office want to know...Otherwise they'd get all the news from the likes of SKY and the BBC News 24 TV screens which flicker away in the campaign war rooms of Victoria Street......

....put me in front of a TV at the moment and............zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz........

...sorry did I doze off again....yes Ann, sofas are for sitting on and beds for sleeping.....what was the score in the Boro game against the Magpies?

Yesterday Whitby was graced by a flying visit by the deputy leader of the Tory Party trying to stir up the nonsense claim about the future of Whitby Hospital...they say it will be closing after the General Election...yes.....only if there's a Tory government! His story telling today is national about Iraq and equally far from reality...does Bram Stoker script this stuff...a flick of his cloak and his helicopter takes him off to another marginal constituency to bring joy to the electorate.

Keeping a good thorough campaign diary is as important to a good successful campaign....it's around 8.40am. Last night my brother Kevin joined us as an extra driver, aide and guardian of the daily diary....it says at 8.45 I'm speaking and answering questions at Scarborough College, the local public school...all the candidates have been invited individually and it's a good practice run out on policy detail......

...I'm not at all phased to walk into the School reception to find that my Tory challenger is busily chatting to the School's politics teacher...he goes several shades of white...maybe he needs breakfast too......"That's OK Robert we can do a debate in front of the students...I'm sure they'd enjoy it "....he defers to me and says I should do it on my own and says I owe him a beer...I swiftly thank him and remind him of his promise and unpaid bet from 2001 when he claimed the Tory candidate in Scarborough & Whitby was a shoe-in ...

..Our early morning duel over....I speak to the assembled 400 students...Q&A and then swiftly off to wonderful Yorkshire Coast radio for another interview then more doorstep work in Seamer...then Kevin points the car to Malton.......it's about 11.30.....Linda had got the appointment at the School wrong...whoops!

"Malton?" I hear the dear readers cry..."but that's not in your constituency"...quite right , we're off to pick up Health minister John Hutton for campaigning in Whitby and Scarborough from Malton railway station ...he's due in around noon.

As John's train glides in around 20 minutes late I notice Janet, one of my key volunteers from Whitby, in the first carriage...I ignore the minister...startle Janet as I knock in the train window... "Do you want a lift to Whitby?" She'll save about 2 hours from the journey by bus onward from Scarborough...she smiles, sweeps up her novel and coat and a puzzled Minister is meeted and greeted before we make the 30 minute drive over the Moors to Whitby Hospital.

John is impressed by Janet's additional briefing on health issues in Whitby and District . We have a photo-call. Escorted tour of Whitby Hospital and hand wash our way around each ward led by Matron, Margaret....I'm glad that Matron is back in charge...Whitby hospital is a jewel in the NHS crown.....spectacular views of wonderful Whitby and will never close whilst we have a health service free at the point of delivery ...we reinforce this message at a stakeholder meeting in the Whitby Coliseum...media interviews successful.


John Hutton and Lawrie at Whitby Hospital	Lawrie with Health Minister John Hutton and Brenda from UNISON at the Coliseum

As ever ministerial visits need to keep moving and my campaign team, walkie-talkies in hand navigate our visitor and candidate on time until news reaches us from London that Michael Ancram and co. have persuaded the PM to publish the Attorney General's advice on the military action against Saddam . Down in the Westminster village communications are eas - up here on the Moors that's another story. As mobiles and pagers punctuate our journey down to Scarborough try to secure time with John before he visits the excellent new £4 million Lawrence House Primary Care GP centre.....John makes a joke about the facility being named after me....20 GPs must be thinking something I'm not thinking!

...media demands satisfied, the Minister misses his departing train by a few minutes and Sandy has to drive him back to York along the A64 to catch a southbound train to Kings Cross.

Lawrie makes a point at the debate

An early evening meal at the "home of the Yorkshire Pudding" at Scarborough's Crescent Hotel is followed by the final hustings meeting organised by Scarborough Churches Together. I remember that the Green candidate and I have sat on numerous panels over the years....21 I reckon ...we celebrate the anniversary by the Vicar/Chairman separating us from our normal seating positions....the Churches want candidates us to sit alphabetically...I make a joke about this...no-one laughs...very few laughs at all...the party hacks have stayed away....BBC Question Time have the Leaders' Panel running at the same time...we have a pleasant debate and the people who didn't get called rush to catch the candidates to ask their question personally....it's now 10.30 pm...back to the cottage by 11.....another campaign day over.

I've been looking forward to today....I've got to do a photo call at a village nursery to promote healthy eating, followed by a visit to an older persons lunchtime session...dancing is promised and my good friends Tony Lloyd from Manchester Central and Ian Stewart from Eccles are coming across from the other side...of the Pennines that is....

...just before we leave the cottage I get a message to say Ian can't make it and Tony and team will be delayed until after 3pm.....never mind I've got 30 pre-school children to entertain...they want a story, laugh at my jokes...local newspaper is delighted with the photos...kids like my story telling and the fruit salad I make them....

...earlier I'd jokingly sent a text message to the party's press office asking if I could get a briefing on the news that Balamory was to be axed by the BBC....I thought better to know the line before being trapped in a corner by 30 under 5s...."I deplore the decision of the BBC to axe this well loved children's TV programme" I rehearsed the answer .... I still await a reply from the Press office lucky for them the issue didn't get raised....The Labour Party press office must have been raised on Blue Peter I guess!

Lawrie kept in the media spotlight

...the lunch is good....can't stop for the dancing ...the members and staff of the Elder Street Centre are wonderful, supportive and most have already voted by post...this is the part of politics I love...people focused and warm...I go on to meet up with Tony Lloyd and his team from Manchester and we do street campaigning until about 8pm ...we have a lovely Italian meal at Giani's and around 10.30pm they leave going westwards and my brother and Ann take me to the cottage....late night emails mean I don't get to bed until well after midnight .....

I rise about 6am....late for me ...write the last week's diary for NCE and think ...only 5 more days to go......

NCE readers will be able to check what happens up to the morning of 6th May by looking at my website at http://www.lawrie-quinn.org.uk ..sorry for the Dracula reference...come to Whitby and see for yourself.

Saturday 30th April : Policies to tackle Boom & Bust

I realised it was a Bank Holiday weekend the moment I looked out to sea around 6.20....the BBC forecast was quite wrong again ....maybe we have this microclimate effect here at the Yorkshire Coast.....now who's the Minister for weather?.......apparently it's associated with the MOD.........today that's the Ministry of Dampness.

We've planned our 4th or is it 5th street stall in Baxtergate, Whitby...balloons must be inflated and yesterday Conrad, a friend who works in the John Smith Institute demonstrated how adaptable policy wonks are outside the school gates in Central Ward in Scarborough....biggest balloon handout since the early days of the campaign when we were using lung power....oh yes balloon gas! Thanks to our party's focus on modern policy in a traditional setting we'd acquired balloon gas and I was glad we had one of the country's top experts in inflation control method....provided he tied the strings enough....otherwise it was soaraway red balloon time!

The school children love it when stickers, balloons and banter greet them at the end of the school day and the feedback from the parents is positive as they walk away with a letter from me about our child friendly policies. The day is warm and we were onto a new bottle of gas....none of us can open the valve .....the children are expectant...the candidate runs ...yes runs into nearby Boyes hardware shop....purchases hammer...valve open ....Conrad is impressed, he makes a comment about having the right tools to do the job etc.....

Back to Whitby and Saturday ...it is all relevant....during this campaign I've been able to get two types of vehicle support and three or four volunteer drivers to assist...remember the Labour Party doesn't approve of candidates self-driving......For ministerial visits we have a Jag available otherwise a people carrier which doubles as mobile campaign office/ stores etc. .....so the newly opened balloon gas bottle is returned to the people carrier.

Our Saturday morning in Whitby is fine...apart from the precipitation...we abandon a static position and do a walk about Whitby....handing out balloons, campaign goodie bags and meetin & greetin.....then the change of plan.....my brother Kevin doesn't like driving automatic vehicles....he's a clutch man ....no-one else available to drive the people carrier...here's my chance...I'll drive!

About half way between Whitby and Scarborough.....ETA around 1pm for walk about in Scarborough town centre.....I hear a thud......open road front and back ....about five minutes later I hear ...or think I hear a hiss....I pull over, one of my passengers jumps out and checks the balloon gas canister....you've guessed it it's fallen over, the nozzle is jammed and candidate and all passengers half way to falsetto voices!......don't you love campaigning?......"SQUEEK !"

The rest of my Saturday was fine after we used the new hammer again ...we'd brought inflation under control and popped the slightest possibility of boom and bust in this campaign!

Sunday 1st May: Dribbling Spaniels thwart my Lazy Mayday afternoon.........

It's still the Bank Holiday...so I sleep in ...quite deliberately I sleep in until 6.30...it's rather misty and my seaview is a blur...my forward planning promises me a finish around 6pm ..well, it is a Sunday and a bank holiday.

I spend 2 hours catching up with paperwork, reading policy documents and thinking about the logistics of the next 4 days...my brother Kevin's snoring punctuates the cries of the gulls on top of the cottage...the mist is turning into a proper fog now and Ann suggests it would be civilised to eat breakfast at the table for a treat ...I turn the PC off and start to relax.........it's around 9am now....I've got a whole hour to eat breakfast, tease my brother and consider what happens at the end of the week.........

...I decided to get a quick shower...I've got plenty of time...no problem ...chill ...relax...enjoy....

I've hardly got the shower to a comfortable temperature when I hear Ann banging the door....it's Hilary Armstrong on the phone! Hilary was 60 minutes early into Whitby and was en route to the cottage...I was dripping wet ...and there was a key campaigner 10 minutes away!....I suggest we rendezvous at the Post Office in Robin Hoods Bay...this buys me just enough time to get dried, dressed and finish the now cold cup of coffee...Ann is in accelerated tidy-up mode...I've left the bathroom in a mess and the Government Chief Whip is 5 minutes away ..........

....I guide Hilary down to the cottage and 10 minutes later we're having a cuppa and watching the Prime Minister on Frost on Sunday.

We glide down to Whitby for a morning's doorstep work ...this week's volunteer turnout is bigger than last weekend ...Joshua's is full of bodies, red rosettes and a sense of purpose...I'm impressed...Hilary thinks it's good that we keep her at it for a solid 2 hours...reinforcing the campaign message...door to door...face to face......

...a springer spaniel is overly excited and dribbles over the Chief's overcoat...I try to defuse any problems by my trusted attempt at wit........ "I was told years ago that candidates need to remember to pat the dogs and kiss the babies...if you get these the wrong way round then you've really lost the plot"............everyone laughs and the dog rewards me with a glob of saliva over my rosette...pretty dog...just one kiss...maybe not - the Chief Whip will write me up in her black book as being too dogmatic!

Voters' Question time at the Whitby Coliseum

Hilary is impressed by her crab sandwich at the Dolphin...it's started to rain now ...Whitby is at near gridlock on the roads and on the footpaths...wonderful Whitby is the most popular Yorkshire Bank Holiday destination...Kevin phones me to say he can't find a parking place...so we walk back to the venue for a Voters' Question time at the Whitby Coliseum ...this goes well...maybe the rain helped fill this auditorium...90 minutes later, Kevin pulls the car up and we're heading south back to Scarborough to the University Campus for a similar meeting...we met over 200 people since 10.30 and both campaigners are positive about our day............

...as I wave goodbye to the Chief Whip she wishes me well for Thursday and it's about 5pm .....I immediately start conversations with Sandy, Mick and Linda about the next 3 days ...........tomorrow is Groundhog Day...I've got Hilary visiting...that's Hilary Benn.....International Development Secretary.

We sit down for our evening meal in Whitby around 9pm ...we've done around 200 miles and even on a Bank Holiday Sunday people still are wishing me well and giving me the thumbs up.....is that what my encounter with the Spaniel was all about?........

.....oh yes Happy Mayday! we did see some damp Morrismen by the Whitby harbour 8 hours ago...my mind must have been somewhere else.

Monday 2nd May - Bank Holiday : Balls on the bongos, Cooper campaigning and Benn going bananas

Mayday Bank Holiday 2005....this is a public holiday I'll never forget for as long as I live....what a day!..... It started so well and in hindsight has imprinted memories I've only ever experienced in the most remote parts of the globe...I'm thinking the glaciers of Alaska, the killer whales of British Columbia, my first encounter with a bear in the wilderness of Yellowstone, my first geological find in the Lake District, my close encounter with a leopard in the Krugar and that wonderful New Years Eve 1978 when I met Ann for the first time....the common connection is how I felt at the time and extreme weather change.

Campaign Day in Whitby

It was a campaign day in Whitby and we had secured the amazingly talented supporting cast of Hilary Benn, International Development Secretary, Yvette Cooper, Minister for Urban Renewal and Ed Balls, Yvette's husband and Gordon Brown's economic advisor. What a Bank Holiday in prospect and good time keeping was at the heart of making the most of the day.

We picked Hilary up at York railway station and the travel time was due to be 90 minutes...it took 180 minutes...and Hilary and I were somewhat out of breath after jogging downhill for the last mile, dodging tourists on the footpaths and their gridlocked cars tailing back from Whitby's Endeavour Quay for at least 8 miles.

The glorious May Day sunshine, May Day Morrismen and clinking cash registers were left behind us as we met local campaigners for fair-trade in Whitby's Co-op superstore....the best place in Whitby for the widest selection of fair-trade products.

Almost on script Hilary made a joke about us being a bit bananas as he lifted a bunch of the Windward Island's finest....it was a serious subject as we checked out the impressive selection of South African wines...Hilary is teetotal and I've not had any alcohol for a month having placed a campaign restriction order on myself ...he's impressed as I indicate a preference for exotic fair-trade fruit juices.

We're now almost 100 minutes late, Ed and Yvette are also stuck in traffic...the sun is blinding, the crowds are spilling over into the roads and the cry of "are we nearly there yet" is rehearsed in a thousand static motor cars.

Browsing in the shop

We now are breaking into an uphill 10 minute jog to the Whitby Worldport shop...we've hardly met Sue and Jim, the founders of the shop and Whitby's World Music festival, when Ed and Yvette walk in .....the shop is a colourful collection of the diversity of our human achievement and I get one of those "I'm so, so proud to represent a place like Whitby" moments .....the focus is Labour's agenda for the developing world and Sue's wide welcoming smile gets bigger and bigger as our ambitions for global leadership on climate change and Africa are outlined by Ed, Yvette and Hilary....this is why I'm in the Labour Party...to make a difference - solving, not making problems......

...later on a tour around the town centre with balloons, campaign goody bags, my fellow candidates meet half of the West Riding many of them their would-be constituents.....colour, smiles...that goodtime feeling of a special bank holiday.

Whitby is famous for creativity, music and her warm hospitality ...just like a big warm cuddle from a mother to her children...Whitby was just wonderful, huggable and heart warmingly brilliant...we were having a ball...

...Oh yes...Ed ....what a guy ...one of our Nation's finest brains here supporting the campaign in Whitby...we're both drawn to the sound of Irish jigs and reels echoing from the stone clad street...sights, smells and now sounds of Yorkshire's oldest and finest trading port.....magic!....

Hidden talent revealed!

...then a moment of pure genius....Ed asks if he can have a go with the bongo...he's rather good...the crowd draws round...photos are taken..."one for the family album mother I think" I hear a Geordie accent say...

..As our day moves from the town centre out to the former council estates Yvette excels at campaigning door to door, garden sunbathers and friendly gardeners....it's never been as positive as this I think....we're winning here in Whitby.....the Sun keeps shining and that feel good factor feels good...hope it's like this weather-wise on Thursday.

Ann and I walk Ed and Yvette downhill, then back upwards to where they've parked their cars ...Ed and Yvette's parents have been having 5 hours of quality seaside experience with their 3 grandchildren....we've known Yvette and Ed for 8 years or so and it's really nice to hear from 6 year old Ellie about the quality of sandcastles, donkeys and how tasty her fish and chips were....the 4 grandparents are beaming too...my face aches from the smiling which started with Hilary's banana joke 6 hours ago....

...Ann reminds me I've not eaten since 8am when I departed to York with Dave to collect Hilary...we wave our farewells to the Ball-Cooper collective, call my brother Kevin up and ask him to join us at Whitby's only Crepearie, which is hidden in one of the Yards behind Skinner Street....the quiet hour we sat there enjoying savoury, then sweet crepes, cranberry juice and coffee was quality time...the first since 1st April I think...family time....Whitby has embraced us......

Steps to success, all 199 of them!

...The Edith Piaf soundtrack transports us to a Parisian oasis....then the hug is dented by the sound of falling rain...it's now 4:30....and there's a clash, a flash and the sky's open......comments echo the restaurant about typical bank holiday weather....it brings us back to the realities of the General Election...I've got a campaign to fight,....coffees are drained, the cascades are pouring down hill over cobbled streets..... I remind Ann the last time we got caught like this was in Montmatre, near Sacré Coeur....does Piaf work for the Ministre D' ampness????

It took us until almost 8pm to finish our early evening campaigning, do some shopping in the Co-op and 70 minutes to exit gridlocked Whitby...don't you love bank holidays.....

...We're now racing to York to collect Tuesday's campaigners from the safe hands of GNER...they're due to overnight with us so we can do an early breakfast media event about dentistry!/.....more about that tomorrow.....since it was Tuesday before I got the bed after the finest bank holiday I can remember.

Tuesday 3rd May 2005 : Two Ministers, a Dentist and a chip buttie

Ann and I arrive back to the cottage just before midnight. Our guests are Douglas Alexander and his advisor, Stella. Stella had arrived on schedule at 9pm from Kings Cross and Douglas was 75 minutes late having suffered signal problems at Morpeth, north of the Tyne, on his journey from Glasgow...we tell lots of jokes on the 60 minute drive back to the Coast...attempt to go with political reference....longest period of no politics is 7 minutes... I've been up for 19 hours now .... I want my bed and know I've got to be up early again - in 4 hours .....

...I was a hopitalible or should I say hospitable host until about 1.15 before I got to bed.

I jumped out of bed at 6.30....showered quickly ...booted up...wrote a press release for the media....started my diary for Monday...and later discovered I forgot to press the send button...I have only had just over 4 hours sleep, Patrick! (Patrick is the wonderful Webmaster for this campaign website).

We've sent Jerry down to Doncaster to collect Rosie Winterton, the Minister for State for Health and we're due to meet up in the car park of McDonald's at Eastfield, Scarborough at 8.30am before media interviews at the newly opened Dental Clinic...we're seeing much progress locally on NHS Dentists after the national focus on Scarborough's dentistry problems last year.

The media interviews with Douglas and Rosie go well and we go door knocking in Eastfield ...just before Noon we take our guest campaigners back to McDonald's for their journeys back to their own constituencies...we see my Tory opponent looking glum and on his own walking around the Eastfield industrial park...the detectives in us figure out he's obviously en route to Yorkshire Coast Radio's studios...opportunity knocks....

.....Some days ago the Tory Deputy Leader had a flying visit to Whitby and now the Tory Spokesperson on Health was due in Town...I decide we must offer him the chance to sign our local petition to keep the NHS free at the point of service delivery.

We have polite handshake ...he sign the petition ...he does a 10 minute interview which is edited down to 120 seconds...he's then off to Beverley and I'm off door knocking again in Barrowcliff.

The local news coverage makes Rosie and Douglas's support worthwhile and we move onto thinking about tomorrow....1 day to go...tomorrow promises to be very, very special.....for now I make do with an al fresco chip buttie shared with Linda, Clare, Julia and Sandy outside 'The Ship' in Falsgrave washed down with a lime and lemonade.....the weather at the Yorkshire Coast has been glorious again ...and the warmth of feed back on the doorsteps kept hunger at bay....posters delivered over 200 hundred, no balloons today, 2000 leaflets given out, 500 plus voters met...peeps and thumbs up all round ...this is not what's being reported in the national press!

...We just make final orders at Green's Restaurant in Whitby at 9pm...back to the cottage by 10.45...sweet, sweet slumber at 11pm ...perchance to dream about Boro v Spurs on Saturday....and European football on Teesside next year.

Wednesday 4th May

I wanted the final day to go with a bang and a crash...it started badly and got much, much better...

Overnight a house brick was thrown through the front window at my Scarborough campaign office in Westborough...it had a note attached...I do wish some people would support the Royal Mail!

It was Linda's birthday....flowers, cards and a birthday cake....she wasn't too sure about the glass shower in the reception area ....but the rendition of H B T Y was a big success...birthday bumps were suspended until the glass got cleared up.

Around 9.30 I accompanied David Miliband, Cabinet Office Minister, to take a look at Barrowcliff's marvellous Sure Start Children's Centre ...I'd like at least another 4 of these across the constituency ...starting with East Whitby! David impressed all he met and we met a lot of local folk as we started the Get Out The Vote, GOTV campaign.

After a fine morning's work David headed back to South Shields and I delivered Ann and my postal vote into the Town Hall in Scarborough ...over 12000 people have applied for PVs across the Borough....and we've done much to make sure people know about the new rules.

Back to the cottage to get changed into No.1 suit...then around 4.,30 I'm speaking to a policeman who'd been canvassed by me in Cayton three weeks earlier...he's much more supportive and read through the stuff I'd sent him...he waves me through the security check with a thumbs up....we're now parking outside the Scarborough Spa....

....I've been asked to be at the Spa for a briefing at 4.45.......we have a special threesome of visitors.....

John Middleton - known on the doorstep!

....John Middleton, the actor who plays Ashley, TV Emmerdale's vicar, has travelled down from Whitley Bay to introduce me to the 700 or so supporters and members....

...I introduce a video detailing the campaign so far...then I introduce Ruth who wants to train as a secondary teacher....she's smashing.....she in turn introduces John Prescott for an end of campaign rallying speech....

...who in turn introduces the Prime Minister....Tony and John give me the type of goldplated endorsements that made me blush....and I'd given both of them such a hard time over the last eight years....and they want me back!...Strange game this.....

...we have a great early evening and the world sees us via Sky, BBC 24 and the rest...........

...John Prescott wants fish and chips for his supper...you've guessed it, north bound convoy....police escorted to the wonderful Magpie in Whitby...we have a fine meal ......relaxing with the DPM is a very special experience...banter...comradeship ...real warmth...John has been a sort of political guru to me for the last 25 years ever since we worked on transport campaigns when I was based in York......campaigning for modern values in a traditional setting....John is the real glue that has kept our leadership together and I was delighted that Tony Blair acknowledged this simple fact known to all of us in the Labour Family......

If you've got spare time today ....please contact your local Labour Party and help us GOTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post Election

Since the result myself and Ann had to go down to London to clear the Westminster office...we had 4 days to do this...anything left after Wednesday was due to be placed into the Parliamentary rubbish skip !

I feel I've discharged my final interviews with all local media and am focused on winding up my offices in both Whitby and Scarborough...yesterday I got half way through shredding Whitby non-active casework archives over 6 months old generating over 20 bags of shredded material !.....I think I've got another good day to go at that.....I'm estimating there's over a week's work at Scarborough ...8 years generated a lot of paper !

I'm awaiting advice from the Parliamentary authorities on redundancies of my 3 loyal staff, Linda, Clare and Maggie who also worked very hard for the local community...strangely many people I've heard from since Friday morning thought I'd be able to continue that service ! In fact we've had attempts to start new cases......

I'd appreciate it if you can advise you readership that any individual cases which were still active and are less than 6 months old I am more than happy to forward details to the individual constituents if they request them.

Obviously Parliament provides for a limited period of wind-up.......and anyone needing to contact me can do so at 53 Westborough Scarborough on 01723 507000 via Linda Brittain up until 3rd June 2005...after that I will provide other contact details....

Lawrie's Election Diary

April 4th - 9th