What a week that was - Merlene's diary blog

Merlene Emerson, Lib Dem PPC for Hammersmith shares with OBV a glimpse of what it is like fighting this high profile marginal seat.

Monday 26 April

Spent the morning organising posters and stakeboards for supporters as well as printing more literature to supplement my election address. In the afternoon a constituent suffering from an aggressive brain tumour who had written to me about the inadequate care she had from the local Council requested I paid her a visit. Ms D felt that if we could highlight to the public the problems in funding for night care in the borough leading to better practice and policies overall, then her suffering would not have been in vain. I was most touched by her courage and determination, and penned a letter to the leader of the Tory Council to demand he looked into her case and for more patient focused care.

Tuesday 27 April

Was up bright and early leafleting at Shepherds Bush tube station from 7.30am to catch the crowd leaving for work. Telegraph sent their reporters to check on how the Lib Dems were doing in Hammersmith post the Clegg surge in the polls. I was delighted to share my observations that the public were eager for us to challenge the status quo. In fact it was now cool to be a Lib Dem: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/uk-politics-video/7640117/General-Election-2010-Liberal-Democrats-campaign-on-a-budget.html

Leafletted outside Brackenbury School in the afternoon and had live hustings on the Islam channel in the evening. First half session focused on the hot topic of housing in the borough whilst issues ranging from Gaza to crime and identity were all packed into the second.

Wednesday 28 March

It is easy to sell the plan to invest £2.5b more in schools which is one of the Lib Dem top 4 election pledges, so the leaflets went quickly outside Wendell Park School in the morning.

In the afternoon was invited by Broadway, a homeless charity to one of their centres in Coningham Road where we had tough questions thrown at us on how we would be able to solve problems with unemployment especially for those who might have fallen foul of the law in the past.

As if that wasn't enough, had another hustings in the evening at the Irish Centre organised by the Federation of Irish Societies to ensure that Irish votes count. I was able to draw parallels between the experience of the Irish diaspora community in London with that of the Chinese and also point out that Anna Lo of the Alliance Party was the first Chinese elected member of the NI assembly. I was happy to endorse the manifesto pledges that the FIS had produced for us.

Thursday 30 April

Was at Hammersmith station in the morning catching the crowd leaving for work. Radio 4's Melanie Abbot arranged to interview me about my views of the Thames Tideway tunnel for the consumer programme 'You and Yours'. This issue had been slightly politicised by the local Council coming out strongly against the project. I have a more environmentally pragmatic approach to the problem.

That afternoon met up with the campaign team to plan the strategy for the final week. We finished in time for us all to return to watch the last televised Leaders' debate.

Friday 30 April

Was invited back to Radio 5 live's 'Into the Night' with Dotun Adebayo and a couple of other PPCs. Always wondered who apart from hauliers and insomniacs stayed up to listen to this programme at 2.30am! After catching a few hours sleep, was back to Greenside School by 8 am to leaflet the mums followed by a visit to a local Sure start centre and a sheltered home.

Arranged to visit Shepherds Bush mosque after Friday prayers at 1.30pm. There seemed to be a ceaseless flow of people coming out of the mosque, and a good majority seemed to be Lib Dem sympathisers. Carried on afterwards with my colleague Natalie to leaflet outside 2 schools in the area, then dashed home to change and prepare for final hustings at Hammersmith College organised by Timeo. The last time I had visited the College was nearly a year ago when I spoke to an AS politics class. A very clued up audience it was too, facilitated by the talented Kate Smurthwaite.

Saturday 1 May

Spent the morning clearing my backlog of emails as well as writing to community groups of which there are many in Hammersmith to solicit their support. Out in Hammersmith at lunchtime leafleting to ensure that Lib Dems are visible on the high street.

Had a radio interview in the afternoon with Nomad radio and was grilled by politics graduate Nuradin, a very earnest young Somali with big ideas for his community. I hope I passed his test with questions ranging from housing and education to health and the economy.

Sunday 2 May

This was the day of our battle bus. It was the third time that I had use of this ol' open-top routemaster as a more efficient way to reach out to voters in the constituency. Brian Paddick, Mayoral candidate in 2008 was good enough to come to Hammersmith to endorse my campaign. Also supporting me were some young people who heard about the battle bus either via twitter or facebook. Despite the dismal weather we managed to raise a few smiles and whistles from passers by. Also on board was a reporter from China who came to England especially to report on our general elections. It seems extraordinary to me that 1.3 billion people in China may be following how I do on May 6th and will be rooting for me! Go democracy!