A very well organised day, after an early start which revealed fine and sunny weather for the poll. Whilst organising the Gransden polling day organisation, I called in on the other committee rooms and did some locking up in Southoe myself. As the count started, we realised our returns been far too optimistic; Michael only winning by 400 votes, Des Merrill losing Gransden Ward 400 to 300 and Percy losing by 1200 to 1400. It was a good result, in comparison with poorer Democrat votes throughout Cambridgeshire but still very disappointing.
An early start and drive over to Great Gransden where I was due to run the polling day organisation for Des Merrill. We had a pleasant start things and found the Shuttleworth’s ready, taped to the work service and the first teller in place ready to start. It was a gloriously-sunny day, warm and still, and we anticipated a very good turnout. I used Des his children to help fetching the numbers on the telling sheets and cross off the names who had voted. As the day progressed, we found that nearly all of voters with those on our lists and I was convinced that we were building an ever-increasing lead in the District Ward, based on this centre of population. Even so, things were quite slow with such a rural area and so I had time to check on the Southoe, Offord, Buckden and Paxton polling stations and our committee rooms at St Neots and Buckden and all seemed to be going well.
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I returned to have lunch with the Merrill’s in Gransden and also collected telling slips from Southoe and crossed off the names before knocking up supporters there myself. Tea of sandwiches and then the evening rush, but I left gransden at 730 and sped over to Buckden to see the last hour of their campaign. I spurred them on to a conclusion and actually knocked up some of Offord d’Arcy myself on my way back to change. I arrived at the counter just before 9 PM and organise the counting agents on my side to scan the boxes they were tipped out for the check on voting papers issued and to make tallies of our support from each polling district. It soon became apparent that our campus returns have been much too optimistic. We had failed to anticipate the number of green and Labour Party supporters and then the Tory vote was much stronger than we had estimated. Even Michael’s count seemed to be in danger but he eventually won by 400 votes, which was comfortable if not emphatic. Next, Des Merrill lost Gransden Ward 400 to 300 in what was a devastating disappointment. It seems that many of the voters who were canvassed as our supporters actually ended up voting for the Tory, Jim Whitehead, and I could not easily understand this. They had hidden their true intentions or at least change their minds when Tory party strings were pulled. Next, Percy seemed to be in big trouble. Great Paxton was very negative and then Abbotsley and Wesley were disastrous. We thought this had sunk him out of sight, but then my Southoe come bouncing back as a gratifying supporter after all of my efforts of the last year. By this time, Percy Meyer and my other workers had slumped down in the seats and were eating, drinking and chatting with Percy. I turn them out and we became increasingly intrigued as the race began to look very close indeed. In fact, it was only the 250 votes taken by an intervening green candidate that prevented us from winning. We lost by some 200 votes, 1200 to 1400. I then had the problem of orchestrating the post-election publicity with all of us just mesmerised by radio news of falling Democrat candidates throughout Cambridgeshire. In truth, we had achieved a sharp swing to us in the St Neots area, which had bucked the trend. I eventually got Michael and Moira are out until 3am, pasting up our results on the flag boards but Percy had gone home.