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With just a few days to go before election day on Thursday I can’t help thinking that it doesn’t feel much like an election to me. There isn’t much of an election buzz. That’s perhaps because we tend to keep up a high level of campaigning throughout the year, so an election period doesn’t feel that much different. Or perhaps because I’ve not bumped into any of the opposition, save one time when a group of Labour canvassers tried to bagsy a council block because they’d “seen it first”.

It’s human nature to think things were better in the past, but looking back four years on this blog I was commenting that it just didn’t really feel like an election and we never bumped into the opposition. I referred to 2005 when we would all campaign on Saturdays in Clapham Junction, but they were a bit more set-piece (and actually a bit immature, on reflection). When I think about it objectively, 1998 really was the last election I’d routinely bump into opposing parties, indeed, one of the Labour candidates became a semi-regular drinking partner during that election.

Now it never happens and it makes for a much duller campaign.

Many turn to the comfort blanket of social media to brag about the overwhelming support they are getting on the doorstep, though that strikes me as buying a convertible because you are balding. Besides, I always wonder how they cope with the inevitable rejection on polling day: no matter how safe the seat there is always a sizeable minority who will think the other guy is better. It must be a painful discovery when the votes are counted and some people voted against you when somehow you’ve never managed to meet anything but supporters.

The reality (and this will be the reality for every party’s activists) is that campaigning involves spending a lot of time waiting at doors when no-one in, meeting a mix of supporters and opponents and knowing, statistically, that most of the people you meet won’t vote anyway. It is a strange way to spend your time, so if you come across an election campaigner in the next few days, at least spare a sympathetic thought for them.

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My good intentions look to be dashed, it has been hectic and non-stop since seven. So the idea of updates during the day was clearly over ambitious. I’m tapping this out over a quick sandwich.

Turnout has been high, the weather kind and the mood great.

Remember polls are open until 10pm and it only takes a few minutes to vote for change (nationally, that is)!

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This time tomorrow I’ll be running around like mad working for a Conservative victory, locally and nationally.

And hopefully the result will reflect the months and years of hard work the Conservatives have put into Battersea and Wandsworth, both administratively running an excellent council and politically, campaigning to hold Putney and gain Battersea and Tooting. It’s been a hard campaign, but the response on the doorstep has been friendly and positive.

But for me the saddest part was finding some people who are not voting Labour. Quite an odd thing to say, perhaps, but let me explain.

I am from a Labour family, my father was a docker and my mother worked on a factory line. Perhaps I’m a class traitor, that’s for others to judge, but growing up in the 80s I saw my working class family doing better under the Conservatives. The horror stories of the 80s put about by Labour that I hear now bear no relevance to my life whatsoever. I’m not saying things were easy, but I could see how they were getting better, and I could see how the left were about holding things back rather than moving forward.

But while those formative years left me thinking that just following the traditional Labour line was wrong, I still had respect for the Labour party. It was my father’s party, my mother’s party. We disagreed, but we respected each other’s views.

So when I was knocking on doors in the Shaftesbury Estate and talking to elderly voters telling me they were not voting I was saddened. When we talked further I discovered that they had been lifelong Labour voters. Most could remember the war and Clement Attlee even if they hadn’t been old enough to vote for him. These were people who had the Labour movement in their blood.

But they couldn’t bring themselves to vote for Gordon Brown.

And that, to me, is horrifying – Labour have let them down so badly they are breaking the habit of a lifetime and staying at home rather than voting. I can think of no greater condemnation of the prime minister and his government.

What’s worst is that lacking any alternative Labour now peddle fear, trying anything to stop someone else winning. It really is politics at its worst.

The Conservatives offer an alternative. It will be hard, and there are tough decisions to be made. But we want to involve everyone, we want to give everyone the opportunity to help make their neighbourhoods better, whether by hosting a street party, running a neighbourhood watch or starting a new school. We want to reward responsibility, but will hold those who fail to meet their responsibility to account. We want to foster our communities, helping businesses and individuals take pride in their areas and get along with their neighbours. And we will provide value, making sure that your money is spent efficiently and effectively.

Tomorrow is about whether you want start again with an ambitious vision, or want to listen to fear and let that be the foundation of five more years of Labour.

I’m choosing hope and voting Conservative.

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When I wrote about getting the election buzz last week I had forgotten that my least favourite part of the campaign was about to hit.

Of course, I say that in a relative sense (since I have seen far too many similar comments misconstrued recently). This isn’t a demoralised, disenchanted or defeatist activist rambling on, but someone who has done enough elections to recognise that he enjoys some parts far more than others!

Having spent the past few weeks (months, years) identifying our support through fairly extensive canvassing much of our work now is about reminding them that the election is on Thursday (many people manage to forget) and how and where they can vote. I’m not sure I find it the least enjoyable part of the campaign. Perhaps because it’s the change from continual canvassing to something different or perhaps because it is difficult to do socially (you normally canvass in teams, but end up doing this alone). But whatever the reason, I’m still out there doing it because it is important, this time especially so because we have two elections on the same day and most people will have four votes to cast – one to choose their MP and three to choose their councillors.

In Shaftesbury I’d be flattered if you could cast your vote for me – I’ll be lurking fourth down on the yellow council ballot paper – but also for my colleagues, Jonathan Cook and Guy Senior for the council and Jane Ellison for parliament.

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Some of the Shaftesbury team on the doors in Stanley Grove

Less than a week to go until polling day now and my election buzz still is starting to kick in. I can only speculate on why it took so long, that it might be things like age (I’m now a family man and supposedly more mature) or that we’ve just been campaigning constantly for so long that it wasn’t really that different when the election was formally announced.

But it also occurred to me today I’ve just not seen any opposition activity.

Perhaps I’m not looking hard enough, but having been on the streets day in and day out for the past few weeks I rather expected I would have seen more. If they are out campaigning they are either doing it elsewhere, or in a very low key way – I’ve not had any leaflets from any other party and have only seen a couple of Labour activists in the ward, one delivering and one who was lost on Lavender Hill.

This is totally different to years gone by. While I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Liberal Democrats campaign in Battersea, the Labour and Conservative Parties had some real battles. In 2005 there was a regular competition to see which of us could muster the most people at Clapham Junction each Saturday. Dozens from either side would run street stalls and, I would imagine, depress trade for the local businesses as people avoided us.

Going further back to 1998 when I was first a council candidate we would regularly cross paths with the Labour candidates on the streets. And just as regularly have a drink with them in The Lavender at the end of the evening. Indeed, we would often all end up in Andersen’s (then the area’s only late night bar, which celebrated its monopoly by selling watery lager and never, ever, cleaning). It was a battle, but it was fun and the rivalry was friendly. Above all, it was personal, we knew each other because we were doing the same thing and got on together because of it – we disagreed about policy, but our motives were the same.

Maybe this time the other parties are campaigning differently, perhaps concentrating on the phones or targeting heavily, so we don’t see them. But I can’t help but feel that we’re losing something when campaigns become so impersonal we don’t even see our opponents.

Instead, I have to console myself with seeing the occasional tweet or dipping into blogs run by opposition activists and candidates. Although these invariably pretend everyone is supporting them (and become so banal and partisan as to be pointless) you can sometimes read between the lines: for example, Stuart King’s blog seems to spend an inordinate amount of time having a go at the Lib Dems, which leaves me wondering if Labour are worried about losing second place there. But generally, it seems we are campaigning in a vacuum here.

That’s not to say I’ve not enjoyed it. It has, so far, been a fun campaign. We’ve set a great pace and covered the ground. Then covered it again. And again. And, in some places, again. If we’ve not managed to see you over the past four weeks (or four years) it’s not because we’ve not tried – it’s because you have a great social life and you’re never in.

And as well as covering the ground, the response has been the friendliest I have ever known, though admittedly I’m using 1997 as my benchmark, and it’s hard to imagine a less friendly time than that to be a Conservative activist!

Now we are entering the final phase, with several days frenetic activity building up to election day next Thursday. Hopefully we’ll make all the hard work – and the friendly response – pay off.

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Way back when I first stood for council in 1998 we had a simple campaign slogan: Wandsworth is Conservative.

The Conservatives had taken a hammering in the 1997 election and a significant number of people believed the council was also Labour controlled. We knew people rated Wandsworth highly, and wanted to vote to continue that, but needed to let them know that if that’s what they wanted, they needed to vote Conservative.

And 12 years later it’s still worth repeating that message.

While knocking on doors the other day I met one voter who told me that they would be voting Conservative nationally, but Labour in the local elections. With a slightly bruised ego I asked why.

“Labour have had it nationally,” I was told, “and there’s no way I’ll vote for them, but they do such a great job running the council I want to keep them in here.”

Needless to say, I quickly corrected them so they knew who had been running the council and providing those services.

Wandsworth has the highest public satisfaction rate in the country. If you want to keep those great services and great value voting Conservative is the way to keep them.

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I’m probably a creep, but I rather like the videos that have been created for the Wandsworth Conservative council campaign. The latest to be featured is on education.

Wandsworth has a lot to be proud of, especially when one considers the challenges faced by inner city schools, but there’s even more to be proud of in the future, with the development of free schools.

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We'd actually spoken to the resident here in the pre-campaign campaign. I hope that's not what has put them off.

Over a week into the formal campaign. And still three weeks to go. Are people fed up yet?

So far it’s been a pleasant experience. I can’t help comparing to my first stint on the Battersea doorstep in 1997 which was, frankly, a depressing experience. As a Conservative campaigning has got better and better with each passing year.

Has it got worse for Labour? Clearly I’ve no idea, I’ve never knocked on a door as a Labour activist, but I can’t help imagining that it has. Our supporters are easier to find and far more motivated to vote than ever before. And while I’m finding Labour supporters (I’m not going to pretend they aren’t out there) I’m not finding enthusiastic Labour supporters.

Back in 1997 we had plenty of supporters, but as I discovered when I was going back to the same doors again and again and again on election day, while they were Conservative supporters they were not, for that election at least, going to be Conservative voters. It’s a simplistic view, but what gave Blair victory in 1997 weren’t the people switching from blue to red, or people voting tactically, but the Conservative voters who stayed at home, while Labour’s vote increased by 2 million between 1992 and 1997 the Tory vote plummeted by 4½ million.

I don’t think we’re on course for a 1997 landslide, the electoral system is too heavily stacked against us for that, but it will be interesting to see how the numbers pan out on the day. It’s a truism, but elections are won or lost on who can persuade their voters to get out and vote. And that’s why we’re out there (annoying some) every day and every night.

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Finally, Brown has blown the starting whistle.

Thank God. It has got to the stage where I’m not just dreaming about elections, but actually had a nightmare over the weekend that Brown bottled it again and delayed the election until June.

Frankly, I’m ready to have a bit of a break from politics and campaigning. We’ve been at it for years, and as much as I’m pleased we’re finally getting a chance to see the back of this appallingly bad government, I’m over the moon that there’s only a few more weeks of campaigning left.

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when we started our general election campaign. I can barely remember selecting Jane as the candidate, it seems that long ago. But in terms of campaigning we’ve been pretty constant since at least 2007 with various elections and election scares. Late 2007, of course, saw huge speculation about a snap election because of the Brown bounce. (How he must kick himself now for bottling that chance.) Then in 2008 we had the Mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections, in 2009 we were campaigning for the European Parliament elections and after that the speculation about another snap election kept us going pretty much up to this point.

Plenty of people will be using this opportunity to set out their stalls – stating why their particular party is the right one for Britain. I’m going to leave that to others because I suspect I’m in tune with the majority of people in the country in saying I’m just happy that Brown will soon be kicked out, and the politics can die down for a while.