Saturday 16 April
A quiet day at home to catch up on real life, while leafleters and canvassers pound the streets of Newton Aycliffe. I make it my primary aim to ring all my children over the weekend, and maybe get my potatoes planted.
Dream on - at 2pm the Sunday Sun (no, it's not the Sunday version of Murdoch's Sun, but a Trinity Mirror Sunday published in Newcastle) rings tosay David Shayler has pulled out of the Sedgefield race and thrown his weight behind Reg, with the wonderful phrase about the possibility of 'a world Portillo moment' should Blair be deposed.
So the wires start buzzing and I do another press release, having tracked Reg and Martin down and got a quote from them. They would be happy with a Tatton moment, though if it did happen, the implications would be far far greater.
Shayler and Annie Machon use the opportunity to place in the public domain the 'when did you know the 45 minutes did not refer to WMDs Mr Blair?' story, which is so damning that it should serve in itself to cause the resignation of any honourable PM.
I feel things are stepping up a gear - our campaign is beginning to move from the ghetto of odd-but-interesting to the world of hard politics.
- ©Reg Keys, 2005 -
