Friday 22 April
Superb stories in the Mail and Guardian - both running under the same heading: 'I'm doing it for Tom.'
And Blair apparently admits to leaking the name of David Kelly. In a press release from the Ministry of Pretending-it-didn't-happen-or-if-it-did-it-doesn't-matter, I suppose.
On the beautiful drive to Newton Aycliffe down the valley of the Tees (it's neither snowing nor raining today) I hear discussion on the radio about the Basil Fawlty syndrome - don't mention the war. Are the parties colluding in this, as Benjamin Zephaniah suggests when he rings with a message of support for Reg?
Margaret Cook later implores voters not to forget the war when they go into the polling booth.
'I have been quite horrified by the way the Iraq war has fallen off the agenda so far during this election campaign,' she says. 'The electorate has to stop thinking only of taxes and hospitals because there are more fundamental issues at risk on May 5th. We are in danger of losing our democracy. Blair has done so much damage to democracy in this country over the last 8 years that we cannot afford to give him another term.'
David Shayler brings Hans von Sponek to the office to meet Reg and Rose Gentle for an hour before the press conference, and at noon they both join the line-up with Margaret Cook, Rose Gentle, John Miller and Reg. The press con is a bit of a riot, but fast. After it breaks up and individual interviews begin it feels a bit like a party, where I want to make sure everyone has someone to talk to but no-one is monopolised for too long.
Press conference 22 April.Then Margaret and Rose go out with Reg to Newton Aycliffe shopping centre to speak to voters. Later a couple from the American organisation Military Families Speak Out call in to meet them.
We have had another good week media-wise - starting with David Shayler's pulling out in favour of Reg and Derek Cattell's resignation from the Sedgefield party, followed by the bus full of broadsheet journos and culminating in the moving presence of three bereaved parents.
I look forward to a peaceful weekend at home while the canvassing team gets on with their work. Maybe my potatoes will get planted at last.
- ©Reg Keys, 2005 -
