Wednesday 20 May 2009

Election Diary: T- 17: Fiona's Singing Cousin

I said last night I'd be quick, and wrote hundreds of words. Tonight I'll be more than quick - tiredness beats verbosity every time.

It's a happy tiredness. Canvass tonight went really well. Met a lot of Labour supporters and a few old family friends on the doors. Only once did the usual bizarre question arise - "Are you anything to Fiona?" Frankly, if Fiona Looney ran in Tallaght Central, she'd be a shoo-in. Everyone knows her! My promise to start pretending I'm her cousin has not yet been taken on.

Glad to be hitting the front page of labour.ie too. It brings new readers to the blog, and my fame for the Red Flag (alternate version here) seems to be spreading. I successfully proposed a motion two years ago at the Labour Party conference to adopt Jim Connell's song as the anthem of the party, and I've sang it at the end of the last two conferences. My brother in Kerry was canvassed by a Labour Cllr tonight who wasn't sure of me until the party anthem was mentioned. "Fair play to him for bringing it back" was the response, though views are mixed - Cllr Aodhán Ó Riordán blogged that the singing is "embarrassing" (sadly Aodhán's blog doesn't allow comments, so I can't defend myself there!)

Got the ballot sheet layout today. It's a tiny point, but I disagree with alphabetical order in PRSTV elections when so many studies have shown that those near the top of the ballot do well. Surely a random draw would be fairer? Only Simpsons reference "Aaron A Aaronson" could be unhappy with that!