The Caledonian Mercury has invited some of those in the election firing-line to send regular bulletins about the personal side of campaigning. David McLetchie is a former leader of the Scottish Conservatives and is standing for re-election in Edinburgh Pentlands.Monday 18 April Today is the day the first batch of postal votes will be sent out. Postal voting is now a big factor in elections – over 20 per cent of the votes cast will be postal votes, which means that for this section of the electorate polling day is now, not on 5 May. We are making a big effort to contact postal voters who are likely to vote Conservative and to "clinch the deal" as they say, and I expect the other parties will be doing the same. However, a lot rests on preparation. Postal votes are now available on demand, so we have made a big effort to get everyone who may conceivably want or need one to apply. Personally I still like to go to the polling station. It's the grassroots of democracy and I like the whole ritual of voting at the station – but then I am into politics, whereas for most people it's convenience that counts and postal voting caters for them. I review some speeches and press releases for what is a big week ahead. The prime minister is in Scotland this week supporting our campaign, and Annabel [Goldie] will be speaking with the other leaders at the Police Federation conference. Normally that would be meat and drink for a Conservative, and we have a good message to tell on increased police numbers and falling crime rates as well as a distinctive approach to sentencing. However, as with all public sector workers, pay and conditions are now at the top of their concerns and a message that there can be no exceptions to public pay policy is going to be a tough sell. One consolation is that the other parties have little choice but to say the same. The Evening News does Pentlands in its constituency profile and the article concludes that I will win, albeit with a reduced majority because of boundary changes. That's what I like to hear – apart from the reduced bit, which I am working hard to rectify! Tuesday 19 April My election addresses are now being delivered to homes in the constituency by Royal Mail, so good timing with the postal vote despatch and our contact programme is going well. I arrange to make a visit to Stevenson College next week, which is a good opportunity to explore higher education and further education funding issues with staff and students. Our education spokesman Liz Smith is coming with me. She has done a terrific job in that portfolio. When she speaks in the chamber there is a respectful silence and members on all sides pay attention to her informed and authoritative contributions. [Vince] Cable is in Edinburgh and making a nuisance of himself, which only adds to the Lib Dem disarray and there is a lot of boo-hooing from them about being roughed up by the No2AV campaign. That's tough. Instead of sniping at us, the Lib Dems should be supporting the efforts of the coalition government to tackle the mess left by Labour and concentrating their fire on them and the Nats. As far as AV is concerned, this is an unloved disproportional system in which even the Lib Dems don't truly believe and neither do we, so why we are supposed to stay silent and allow the country to adopt it by default defeats me.
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