A depressing end

A Tory blitzkreig has been really galling, and the flood of canvassers and leaflets has probably done more to alienate than galvanise. It has been really hard to put up with all the Tory MP's - up to 40 in a day - treating the constituency as their own, and 6 visits by Cameron alone, have all gone to make it a very depressing by-election. Media interest was slow, probably reflecting a mood of initial indifference in the electorate that became more actively hostile as it progressed.

The massive Tory effort is, however, an interesting barometer of opinion. Young Chloe will win, but probably not increase her vote by much over the last election - and it will be the size of the vote more than the majority that should be scrutinised on Friday afternoon. Whilst any win will be acclaimed by a Tory celebration, in most parts of Norwich North that will be as welcome as an Ipswich team bus. Most people will have voted against the Tory but for them really to celebrate the massive effort should have gleaned much more for it to be a confident indicator that they are winning hearts and minds.

Who will be second will also be interesting, quite a few are punishing the main parties and I expect the Greens to do well in picking up those Labour voters who are angry enough about Ian's treatment to do more than sit on their hands. Labour could well find themselves behind both Greens and the Lib Dems with some side interest in whether the Lib Dems beat the Greens - 4th would not be good for them at all.

One factor that has not come through in all the reporting is the extent to which local residents are as fed up with the Council as they are the national parties. Traditionally Labour it was taken over by the Lib Dems after the infamous Chestnut tree incident, only for them to do so appallingly badly that they lost out to Labour and the Greens with a red/green coalition now in charge. Regardless of the Party in charge, the everyday experience of the council is one of incompetence and indifference by its employees - with honourable exceptions. It is that everyday experience that is doing so much to undermine democracy as people lose faith that voting will actually make a difference to their lives. That loss of faith is the real tragedy in politics, and in Norwich it is made all the more bleak because the honourable exception - the one person many came across who did seem to care and who did try to make a difference for peoples lives - was treated so badly. There will no real victors for all the smoke and mirrors that will be employed by the parties, but the people will have lost as a decent local MP is replaced by careerist insider.

After the weekend papers Norwich North will disappear from the national conscious. It is doubtful whether we will ever see Cameron here again after his weekend celebration. But we will still be here, the residents of Norwich North with our daily lives, our problems and struggles against bureaucratic inefficiency. Nothing much will change and life will go on, but something will have been diminished by the events of the last few weeks.