Bromley and Blaenau Gwent

11.20.19am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 9th Jun 2006

Whilst down in London earlier in the week I managed to spend four or so hours helping in the Bromley by-election campaign. I hope to get down there again and will defiantly be going over to the Blaenau Gwent by-election election. Both contest are very important to the Liberal Democrats, in different ways.

Bromley is a real test for Cameron and the Liberal Democrats. Eric Forth had a huge majority over Labour and the Liberal Democrats were third. The Conservatives not only have to hold the seat they need to win convincingly and may even need to record a swing to them. The Liberal Democrats however need to show they are still an alternative to Cameron's Conservatives, we need to gain at least second place - although I know the team are going for a first place. The candidate and his team are both very good so Bromley could be interesting.

In Blaenau Gwent there is a real chance for progress and whilst no-one political commentators expect the Liberal Democrats to win Labour obviously are worried as they spent about half of their last leaflet attacking our candidates. I would expect the Liberal Democrat share of the vote to rocket and a good result here will set us up very well to gain an additional Assembly Member in Wales South East next May.

So both are very important to the Party and I would urge everyone to help in one (or both) by-elections either by going or by doing some phone canvassing - details on how to help can be found at www.libdems.org.uk

As well as by-elections there are details below of some Agents Training in Birmingham on Saturday 8 July - please contact me if you are interested. There is also information below about a number of forthcoming social events, conferences and other events.