The LibDem can’t bear Clegg ...we know the feeling, dear
sees the Conservatives target the Lib Dems in the West Country
POW by name, Ka-Pow by nature. Rebecca Pow, Tory candidate for marginal Taunton Deane, is as pink and springy as forced rhubarb. One of life’s Tiggers, this one. As the muscular mother- of- three approached me on a chilly Somerset morn, hand outstretched, I couldn’t help noticing that the zip of her turquoise denim trousers was undone. Will these modern Conservative women stop at nothing?
Fifty- something Miss Pow is a former National Farmers Union organiser and presenter of Radio 4’s ‘Farming Today’.
Until recently she helped a gardening show on the local BBC station called ‘What’s Growin’ On?’ (you need to say this in a Sumerzet accent, which she does have, slightly).
Yesterday she hit Taunton farmers’ market with Environment Secretary Liz Truss, also in blue denims.
Miss Pow had a wicker shopping basket. With brisk efficiency it was soon filled with provisions – and possibly votes.
Taunton has been Lib Dem since 2005 but incumbent Jeremy Browne has quit, no longer able to bear Nick Clegg. We know the feeling, dear.
At The Chillees stall Miss Truss found a hot sauce called ‘Yellow Peril’. That happens to be what Tories call the Lib Dems. ‘Very dangerous,’ said Miss Truss, tasting it.
Stallholder Fran Lee, 43, bent the minister’s ear about fussy new EU labelling rules which could put her out of business.
Beside her, organic grocer Ray Weymouth, 41, had not yet decided how to vote. He wanted to employ a helper but the paperwork was too burdensome. Sort it out, minister. She said she would try. AT Conrad’s kitchens, over some handsome potted shrimps, owner Conrad Fielding had taken on an apprentice – but not through the Government scheme, because that was too fiddly. He, too, was being driven mad by bossy rules about labels.
‘This election feels like a pantomime,’ he said. ‘I still have no idea how I will vote.’
But you sensed a force field
around Miss Pow. Pedestrians ran up to say hello. Apple growers June and Robin Small, ex Lib Dem lifers, were switching Tory because they were fed up with the EU.
‘I’m amazed there is still any doubt about how the election will go – Cameron is so obviously the best man,’ said Mr Small.
A ring of church bells interrupted us. ‘Sorry,’ said Taunton street chaplain Steven Reed. The bells were the Rev Reed’s mobile ringtone.
We headed for the Yeovil constituency, another Lib Dem seat (Saint Paddy Ashdown once held it). The Tories have their tails well up here. If they can win in Yeovil, a Tory majority may well be on the cards. The sitting Lib Dem MP is David Laws, he of expenses notoriety. There have been rumours of tantrums at Chateau Laws.
‘The West Country is a target rich environment for us,’ said a confident Miss Truss.
‘Touchstone’ issues here include bovine TB and the badger cull – and the locals, by and large, have little sympathy for Mr Brock. Miss Truss felt much the same about Nick Clegg. ‘We don’t want to waste time attacking him,’ she said. ‘He’s like a toddler who’s playing up. Anyway, he might not be around after the election.’ Ouch.
The route took us along the A358, one of two roads whose upgrades Ed Miliband wants to block. That announcement went down like a wormed apple in Somerset. No wonder Labour is invisible in this part of England.
At Perry’s Cider Mill, third-generation cidermaker John Perry said all he hoped for was ‘low rates and a stable economy’.
He had recently spent £300,000 on a new bottling plant. There was a lovely pong of strong cider. I started feeling a bit woozy.
Yeovil’s Tory candidate Marcus Fysh turned up, full of rather earnest answers about local issues. Clever chap. He could be making a fortune in business yet he wants to be in politics.
It turned out that he knew Ed Miliband at Oxford University. He even helped Ed to organise a student protest. ‘He wasn’t quite as red in those days,’ said Mr Fysh affectionately. ‘He didn’t talk in that Tony Blair way he does now. It’s odd, but we always thought his brother David was more impressive.’