I'll see your 25,000 letters and raise you 5,000

How many campaigns for the same thing does an area need?

Last week LibDem PPC launched his Full Maternity at Maidstone Campaign, saying that he is going to write to 20,000 women asking them to sign his petition to save the obstetric unit at Maidstone. This week Helen Grant is going for 5,000 more, writing to 25,000 women and pushing a pram from Maidstone to Pembury. To suggest that Helen is bandwagonning would be disingenous, MASH was formed last year to campaign for service to stay at Maidstone, however the timing of her actions are clearly suspect.

Obviously the campaigns are worthy in their own right (and I'm happy to sign either petition - or both), but they are just one example of what is wrong with modern politics. Where there is common cause, parties and candidates should work together, not duplicate efforts. Elections should be fought on issues, differences and policies, not on who can get the most publicity fighting from the same corner. I strongly suspect every PPC for Maidstone and the Weald thinks that Maidstone should keep it current range of services.

So all I need to do now is find 30,000 women in the constituency to write to and then I'll need to find a women in labour to push on a bed down the A26/A228... I wonder how Rav will beat that?