Anna Pascoe is your Lib Dem candidate for South West Devon. Here's a diary of her first week in the role

By PRSD, on Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Anna Pascoe has been selected to fight the South West Devon constituency for the Lib Dem come the next General Election. But what does a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate get up to? Here’s what she did on her first official week as a Lib Dem PPC for South Devon.

Monday, November 2
The first full week of being the Lib Dem hopeful for the good people of South West Devon began as no doubt many subsequent weeks will – deeply overcast skies and a generous accompaniment of thick drizzle for good measure. Undeterred (ok, a tad grumpy), I sorted out the final bits and bobs for the press release on my candidacy with the South West Devon team and then hauled myself off for a bit of exercise in the evening. It does feel like going to the gym in the middle of the night now that the clocks have altered though! No doubt I’ll get a bit of mileage out of that excuse over the coming season.

Tuesday, November 3
An otherwise peaceful day at work was punctuated with moderately nervy peeks at the Plymouth Herald website to see how they’d report the press release. Relieved to eventually see that they hadn’t used the old campaign pic of me from a few years ago where I look like a younger, slightly more dashing version of Bitty from Little Britain.

Celebrated this minor victory with a quick swim before netball, where my delight was rapidly tempered by no fewer than four flesh wounds within the training session.

Wednesday, November 4
A spot of fresh air this morning in the mistaken belief that the rain had eased soon became an unglamourous dash to the nearest place to shelter. I retreated to my sitting room to busy myself with copying up my notes from meeting with Plympton residents on Friday. Trotted off to work feeling distinctly pleased with myself after TalkTalk called to offer compensation and help with my campaign as way of apology for the small matter of not having internet since April or phone since August.

Thursday, November 5
Over my time as a councillor, I’ve learned not to confuse a quick reply being at all proportional to something actually getting done, quickly or otherwise. To give Plymouth City Council due credit though, they’d emailed back with a pledge to look in to the problems I’d reported with Mudge Way car park and Ridgeway public conveniences. I’ll keep you posted! Having forgotten to bring a weather-wise change of clothing to work with me, I sported an interesting grubby-netball-trainers-with-woollen-work-trousers ensemble to go and watch the fireworks with a colleague in the evening.

Friday, November 6
Thrilled by the fact that opening my curtains on my morning off had absolutely no effect on how dark it was in my room, I decided to embark on a much-needed clearout of my wardrobe. At the Plymstock PACT meeting the other week, the chair had talked about the Shekinah Mission on Bath Street always being glad of clothing donations. They’ll certainly have an interesting bagful when I get round to dropping what I unearthed off! Alarm struck on my way to work when the brakes on my car failed, fortunately I was on a quiet country lane at the time. The nice man from Ford promises to mend it on Wednesday. Good to see the Ivybrige and South Hams Gazette had picked up on the press release today too.

Saturday, November 7
Excited to wake up and discover that a trusty young volunteer had emailed over some telephone canvassing in the middle of the night to pass on to my band of lovely volunteers. Trusty young volunteer number 2 had emailed over the latest design proofs for a residents’ survey by the time I’d finished work. I indulged in a spot of the painfullly addictive X Factor while going over some campaign admin when I got in. Wonder what the unfortunate Professor Nutt would have to say about the harm levels of John and Edward?

Sunday, November 8
Assembling for the Remembrance Parade, I thought back to a school trip to Flanders and the abject horror of young men dying in the fields, poorly equipped and never to see their loved ones again. Plus ca change. The level of public feeling about Afghanistan was clearly on show, I’d say the turnout was about double that of recent years. Went home feeling very humble. Popped to a hairdresser friend’s place for a trim before catching the train to Plymouth, which was late. It was due to children on the track instead of leaves though, good to see a bit of variation in FirstGroup’s arsenal of How To Let Customers Down While Still Charging Them Lots.

• Anna will be up against the sitting MP, Conservative Gary Streeter, and fighting the seat for Labour is Luke Pollard