Laddered tights, keyed cars and a trip to the Big Smoke – a week in the life of Anna Pascoe Lib Dem PPC for South West Devon

By PRSD, on Monday, November 30, 2009

Anna Pascoe Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South West Devon pledged her support to take on the big and inappropriate Ivybridge incinerator, considered the perception of women and politics, and mused on the future of journalism – could it be the PRSD?! All in a week of laddered tights, keyed cars and a trip to the Big Smoke.

Monday, November 23
Began the week with some campaign admin, updating constituents on casework queries and ploughing through that ever-growing email inbox. Did some work with Plymouth Moor View candidate Stuart Bonar on the Lib Dem opposition to the proposed sale of Citybus by the Conservative Plymouth City Council administration. It was nice to receive a message from Frankie Dolan, founder of the ecoivy website, thanking me for attending the packed meeting about Viridor’s proposed incinerator at the Lee Mill site on Saturday. I emailed back praising her efforts to make local residents aware of what is going on so far and pledging my support in any way I can. It will be interesting to see how the planning application shapes up when it is finally submitted, takes me back to my younger days on the planning committee. Nothing like the challenge of taking on a big and inappropriate submission!

Tuesday, November 24
Busy day at work conducting the second interviews for the marketing development manager role. It was oh-so close between the final shortlisted candidates and felt really sad to be turning two of them down. Always on the look-out for bright and enthusiastic folk to join my campaign team, I was almost tempted to ask them if they’d consider doing that instead, but thought it might be a tad unprofessional. Raced off to netball afterwards and it occurred to me around 9.30pm that as I was heading to London tomorrow, it may be an idea to get in touch with friends and colleagues I know up there instead of relying on the couple of engagements in my diary to fill the time!

Wednesday, November 25
Despite the urban legends of first class tickets for £10 if you book early enough, the best deal I could find was £31.65 each way to London, involving an OK train at 10amish today and a distinctly less-likely-to-seem-OK train at 9amish for the return on Saturday. Managed to finish off my campaign environmental policy on the journey up and did the “real person check” courtesy of a mate, who kindly advised on removing or re-phrasing the odd bit of inadvertent jargon that had crept in. You’ll be able to read the policy and my green commitments in full on my soon-to-be-launched website (see Friday’s entry).

After the disappointment of laddering my favourite tights on the journey over to where I was staying, it was a quick freshen up and change before wending my way to Westminster to meet the BBC correspondent Laura Kuenssberg for a chat about how the world of politics treats young women. Discussing this with a female councillor beforehand, she commented that by and large, men are instantly accepted in the political chamber, regardless of intelligence, ability or appearance, while women in many cases have to prove themselves to be competent on all those fronts.

Thursday, November 26
Had a little bit of time to relax this morning, interspersed with the neverending and futile attempt to get to the bottom of my email inbox. Then I headed over to Westminster to meet up with some “upcountry” Lib Dems. It was nice to catch up with them outside of the frantic schedule of Party conference and have a natter about the issues we’re working on in our respective areas. The wonderful world of Twitter enables us to keep in touch outside of the conference, but as I tweeted that day, it makes a refreshing change to meet up with friends in real life as well! Noted that both thelondonpaper and London Lite freesheets have closed since I was last in London and wondered if sites like PRSD are the future of access to journalism.

Friday, November 27th
For once, the iPhone weather application proved to be accurate and it was absolutely freezing today! Definitely time to get the gloves out, unfortunately the gloves were 300 miles away back home. Undeterred, I hopped on the tube and headed down to Victoria, to meet a friend for a working lunch, to finalise the design of the really-nearly-done-now website for my parliamentary candidacy, www.annapascoe.com. We used Google Wave for the first time to work on the content and I have to say, I’m sold! Gone are the days of endless emails, calls and texts waiting for a response to get projects sorted. I was amused to see that the infamously trendy Google offices extend their coolness to their canteen, featuring an array of vases sculpted from seasonal vegetables. Honestly.

Saturday, November 28
I have a little ritual at Paddington when I’m getting the morning train back. I go up to the deli counter, ask nicely for two of these tasty little mini ham and cheese pastries they do, and then the person behind the counter puts one only into a bag. I’ve tried all approaches in order to actually receive the number of pastries I want and ask for, to no avail. I’m quite happy to challenge local and central government policy when I think it’s not right for the community, but I’m edging towards the conclusion that on this somewhat less important matter, I might just have to accept the fact that you win some, you lose some. Maybe a packed lunch is the answer! Caught up with some emails and casework on the journey home and just had time to flick through the paper and unpack my case before heading off to work.

Sunday, November 29
Caught up on post from while I was away after inspecting a leak that appears to have developed in my porch roof this morning. One of my oldest and dearest friends tactfully texted to point out that it had been erm, a while, since we last saw each other and so we headed out for a nice Sunday lunch. The occasion slightly marred as she exclaimed: “Oh no Anna, what happened to your car?!” when I picked her up – seems some terribly artistic soul felt like carving abstract lines into the passenger side of my car with a key. Cheers! An evening at work ensued, and I stayed up for a while after I finished my shift having a proper old furrow around the new Lib Dem social media network ACT – looking forward to encouraging people to use the new network to promote community events and get to know people in their area. (Don’t worry PRSD, there’ll always be a place in our heart for you!)