Even though the weather looked as if it was going to rain, we had a very good session meeting the early morning commuters in Burnt Oak. Standing outside the Tube station (without any of the other political parties in attendance) we spoke with hundreds of people. Even though commuters hopping off buses were running to catch their trains, most people took a leaflet and several shop keepers invited us in and ask if they could put up a poster.

Going on to Mill Hill the hot topic of discussion in the café was not the election but who had what perfume on. The lady managing the café came to our table to ask Claire if she had Angel or Marc Jacobs on? I was hoping that she was going to ask about the Labour Party’s plan to raise National Insurance and see what impact that would have upon her employees and her business but no, it was the smell of perfume which was most important to the public.

The first canvass of the day in Mill Hill was good – people stopped their cars to talk with us, one guy gave us the thumbs up as he spoke on his mobile phone, another stopped her car in full traffic and asked us to deliver a poster to her house and a lady, a lecturer, stopped me to talk about the Further Education cuts. She told me that the cuts imposed by the Labour Government meant that she would have no more hours for teaching English, even though people who come to this country and don’t speak English need to learn if they are to play any part in our society. The lecturer said there was still money for hair and nail courses, even though apprenticeships for these jobs can still be found in the private sector. She made it clear who she would be voting for.

Later in the evening we were inundated by commuters who were getting off the Tube in Edgware. We were joined by a band of supporters and Cllr Darrel Yawitch and Cllr Joan Scannel, eager to press the flesh as we campaigned for both the general election and also the elections to Barnet Council.

My phone kept ringing and – for the second time of the day – the press wanted to meet up with us to take some photographs on the campaign trail. Earlier the Hendon Times photographed me with a supporter on his doorstep and also with his dog, a beautiful Alsatian called Sheba. The photographer was happy with photographing us, though he said the Labour candidate was unavailable (this is supposed to be an election!) so he had to make do with a few Labour activists instead. In the evening the Jewish Chronicle wanted the same and we repeated the shoot with different activists.

Overall, the first full day of campaigning was very good. While there were some Labour activists on the ground, none of the other candidates were knocking on doors or delivering during the day. Still, that’s one of the benefits of being the truly local candidate – I am in Hendon even when asleep.