Councillor Observation

Councillor Jeremy Moulton sits in his office, of which he shares with three other councillors, and collects his new emails and information for a meeting he is to attend in twenty minutes. The room has a wall full of windows letting in the morning light and slowly heating up the room from the new April warmth.

Councillor Moulton wears a light pink shirt with blue stripes and a blue tie with pink squares, all topped off with a blue jumper. A combination that seems to work with his grey slacks and black leather shoes. He stands at about five foot six inches and has sandy blonde hair.

He talks about his aims and goals and the elections he is standing in. He is up for re-election as Councillor of Finance and is also standing in the General Election as the Conservative Candidate for Southampton Test. This is a large area of Southampton that covers: Coxford, Redbridge, Millbrook, Shirley, Portswood, Freemantle and Bevois. If he wins the General Election, his plan is to stand down as Councillor of Finance after a year and put all of his attention in to being the MP of Southampton Test.

At 8.48 Councillor Moulton heads out of the Southampton Council Offices to his Ford Mustang GT, in grey. He sits on the left to drive the rear-wheeled, left drive automatic and reads his emails whilst he drives to the meeting in some sheltered accommodation in Freemantle. He parks opposite the Freemantle Church and strides towards the sheltered accommodation. On the way he comments about the meeting and his stand point on it. The meeting is for Sycamore Lodge, a sheltered housing accommodation for older people. This is the alternative to a retirement home but makes them feel safer than living on their own. The sheltered accommodation has its own warden which helps the older people when they need it and also makes them all become more social by setting up games and conversations for them all to join in with. Jake is Sycamore Lodge’s warden and he lives with them, meaning that the older people are always safe, twenty-four hours of the day. The meeting has been set up by the action group that live at Sycamore Lodge and other sheltered homes around the area. They are meeting in order to protest against the removal of Jake, their warden, in favour of a warden that is on call for all the sheltered homes in the area; but does not live in any of them. Councillor Moulton’s stand point is that he wants to give the residents whatever they want. He said that if the residents want a full time, live in, warden he shall make it so that they do.

Councillor Moulton rings the doorbell to be greeted by Jake, a stocky man with wispy grey hair, a chequered top and stone washed jeans. They walk in to the communal room which is set up with about twenty chairs in a circle. Councillor Moulton is the first to arrive at five minutes to nine. “We’re the first one’s here?” he asks Jake, the warden. Jake said that he was two hours early as the meeting doesn’t start until eleven. After some more banter he finds out the Councillor Alan Whitehead will be attending the meeting, the Labour MP of Southampton Test and Councillor Moulton’s opponent.

With two hours to fill, Moulton proceeds back to his car and opens the boot to find a loot of fliers, leaflets, posters, car stickers of Conservative propaganda with Councillor Jeremy Moulton’s picture on, and including a magazine all about Councillor Moulton and his career and beliefs. The leaflets are traditional blue and green Conservative colours with the areas of his proposed Constituency. It also features Moulton posing in front of the Bargate in Southampton with yet another blue and pink ensemble. This includes Moulton’s contact details and the slogan, ‘The only local alternative to Labour’.

After dropping leaflets in the near by neighbourhood for two hours, Councillor Moulton proceeds back to the meeting and instead of just being a Councillor overlooking the meeting, as he thought he would be doing, he was the one answering all of the action group’s questions and trying to sort the problem out by himself. He stood his ground and the residents of the home ended with agreeing with everything he said and talking to him about the General Election. They said about how their age group was the group that were the ones voting and that it was time to become Conservative.

The meeting ended at 12.30, just enough time for Councillor Moulton to meet up with his girlfriend and campaigning group at The Bush Inn, a pub on Wimpson Lane. The pub was empty, apart from an alcove of well dressed men, and two ladies eating a platter of sandwiches and Indian seafood. The drinks were put on the tab and the food was guzzled down.

After twenty minutes of eating and campaigning tactics Councillor Moulton hopped back in to his Mustang and showed the way to the biggest Mosque in Southampton to his friend, Steven Hammond, Shadow Minister for Transport. After reaching Derby Road and finding a place to park, (which needed a permit) they started to talk tactics again. The plan was to wait outside the Mosque and hand out leaflets until the entire building was empty of people. The Mosque held over 1,200 people and was an old school that had been made in to Abu Bakr Masjid on Argyle Road. Moulton, Hammond and Royston Smith waited outside. Royston Smith was the Conservative Candidate for Southampton Itchen and was showing his support to Councillor Moulton as well.

The three candidates stood outside handing out about five hundred leaflets, of which about one hundred and fifty were left. After the road and Mosque were cleared the Conservatives were invited inside for some rice and meat. The head of the Mosque, Zahir Ahmed welcomed everyone with food and conversation about the up-coming election and his and his friend’s opinion on who they were voting for, the Conservatives.

This marked the end of the day as Councillor Moulton returned to his Mustang, and drove back to Southampton Council Offices after a successful day of Campaigning.