Media campaign

Toby writes...

This is quite a difficult campaign so far as media coverage is concerned. Only one newspaper, The Northern Echo, covers the whole area.

I have been given pretty good coverage in all the newspapers. The Echo have run a piece every day and are carrying an extended interview on Thursday.

 

I have also been interviewed by the local BBC Radio station and BBC Online; today I am being interviewed by the Today programme, as well as for another Echo story.

On Friday, we are being covered by Tyne Tees Television and BBC North East.

 

So far there has been practically no interest shown by national television or the national newspapers. Hopefully they will appear next week for the run up.

It is a strange campaign due to the tight time scale plus, of course, the fact that more than 20,000 are registered postal voters. This means that, by the end of this week, more than a third of the constituency will already have voted.

 

The whole campaign – except UKIP's, obviously! – is a desert so far as policies are concerned. Every party, including the BNP and the Greens, see the main issue as the run-down shopping centre at Newton Aycliffe.

Everybody agrees that the centre needs regeneration, but all of them continue to try and make it the one and only issue.