Philobiblon

Well I spent about five hours canvassing today, and three hours running a stall on Kentish Town High street, battered by a squally wind, and I think I could fairly say I’m shattered.

I’m feeling pretty happy with how the by-election campaign has gone – there are always things you would have done differently in retrospect, and there’s always the feeling that if you knock on one more door it might make all the difference, but overall I think the Camden Green Party did a good team job. And personally I finished the night by converting two Lib Dem voters, which made a nice final flourish.

Now it is up to the voters, whose verdict will be delivered about 24 hours. The fallout from tonight’s final bit of excitement – the arrival of a Tory leaflet that is flat-out wrong – it claims that Sian isn’t a school governor when she is, and that was clearly stated on several of our leaflets – could take longer. They have been contacted – and the media knows about it, so that one could run and run.

And it will be interesting to see how many voters turn out, after a pretty intensive campaign by four parties. (Even the Tories did a lot of phone canvassing and leafletting even though they haven’t got a hope.)

I’ve got a small bet riding on the turnout: I reckon it will be more than 40%, even though that is generally considered impossible in a by-election. (The general election in May in Kt was about 42%.)

One certain outcome is that a lot more “no junk mail” stickers have gone up on Kentish Town letterboxes, so you might call that a bonus.