Election Day in Norwich

I'm sitting on a train moving steadily through rural Norfolk and Suffolk. I'm heading back to Essex after spending election day in Norwich. Having voted at home at 7am (no queues in Ingatestone), I got an early train arriving in Norwich just before 10am. With the help of a trusty map I found my way to the Committee Room. in Thorpe Hamlet Ward. I'm not sure I knew what to expect as I made way conbbled streets in the medieval section of the city.

Committee Room organisation, the crossing off of those who'd voted etc took me back to an earlier period of my life. There was a time when we lived in Ilford when our home would have been taken over during election campaigns, but I reflect that that was now over 20 years ago and much has changed.

After leaving the Labour Party in 2009, I helped the Green Party candidate in Brentwood in the General Election. In truth it had little significance as our area is one of the safest parliamentary seats in the country. Today, however, is the first time I have campaigned for the Greens where the main opposition is the Labour Party.

Norwich is a city where the two main forces are Labour and Green. Before today's results the spllit on the Council was 18/15. It is conceivable that the Tories and the Lib Dems could be wiped out at local government level. How ironic given that coalition parties have both of the city's MPs.

This morning I expected to spend my day engaged in polling duty and perhaps some "knocking up". However by the end of the day I had done three sessions of knocking up in Thorpe Hamlet, one spell of leafletting in a neighbouring ward and finally some last minute telephone canvassing.

Norwich is a mixed city wonderfully illustrated by the comparison between the tower block where I started off in late morning and the close behind Norwich's wonderful cathedral where I spent tea time encouraging home owners to make their way to a local hotel to vote.

I sense that turnout will be low, but hopefully the Greens will retain the six seats that they are defending. As the train makes its way south, I listen to the radio. The station focuses on the London Mayor contest, but for once my thoughts are on the city I have left behind. It seems that the results will not be announced until after 3am and my feet are telling me that I should sleep rather than sit up waiting. It's been a long but rewarding day.


This was written on the 10pm train out of Norwich. When I got home a mug of tea and my feet soon recovered. By 1.45am the Norwich results were out. Thorpe Hamlet returned , Ben Price, the Green Candidate. All other seats were defended, although Labour gained overall control of the council. The Tories lost their remaing 2 seats while the lib Dems hung on by a thread to their 1 council seat. The turnout was as I expected low at around 32%.