Day 9

Today didn’t go to plan. A mistake was spotted in direct mail letters at the last minute which means they all need to be reprinted. A meeting to plan an event next week was an hour late and didn’t have all the info we needed. A photo shoot for a new leaflet was rudely interrupted by someone who seemed to think that all the ills of the world were my fault and how dare I be a minister in political life. Ah, the bliss of the democratic process. On the other hand, feedback from canvassing is good, better than the polls are suggesting. My next leaflet is making its way out quickly and the team at the rooms were on good form with plenty of that banter that makes the election process much more bearable. So I remain upbeat. I spent the evening at the John Lewis event for their staff at the EICC. It was an inspiring event with over 800 staff (out of 1025) listening to General manager Andrew Murphy using a wide array of excellent visuals to deliver a speech that focused on the importance of staff participation in the life of the company and the simple “rule” that happy staff will mean happy customers will mean better results. Its not rocket science but it works. Can I achieve that with the voters of Edinburgh? An altogether much more complicated task.