Monday, 11 June 2001

The Editor

Dear Sir,

In politics the winner takes all, leaving the looser with nothing but memories. The memories I have are nothing but sweet ones for the eighteen months that I have been working in Erewash. Memories of the thousands of people that I have met on the doorstep. Memories of the fun that we have shared.

Memories of the massive amount of work, done by hundreds of people, which was necessary to carry out the campaign that we mounted over those months. Memories of the lovely weather that marked most of the election run-up.

Let me thank those who voted for me and especially those who did more than that. Let me thank those who put up posters. It makes a tremendous difference when you walk down a road where there are posters up in the windows. Those who gave time to the campaign, and who really made it possible to mount, will all get an individual thank you. But there are many others whose small efforts helped get more people out to vote, this is my opportunity to thank you all as well.

If I have one sadness about the campaign, it is the low poll. It seems a shame that, when our campaign succeeded in showing all the things that are wrong locally, so many people's reaction was to sit at home rather than voting for a change. You'll never get change if you don't vote for it.

To those who failed to vote I say this: "When the Pewit is built over and Breaston is attached to Long Eaton by an industrial estate, when crime locally rises due to the lack of police resources, when hospitals collapse under the massive backlogs on waiting lists, when schools cannot cope because so many disillusioned teachers have left, when the spin finally fails, when all these things have happened; don’t complain.

"You were offered an alternative, but you stayed at home."

Yours faithfully,

N Gregor Macgregor