Tories start election ball rolling

The scent of politics rather than daffodils seems to be in the air at the moment.
The County Council is limbering up for elections in June, and we'll have more to say on that in the next few days.
But in the spirit of even longer term planning Boston's Tories are setting their sights 805 days from now - check out our countdown clock.
As many of us will recall, the council chamber in Worst Street was dominated by the Conservatives for years.
In the dog days of their reign, the party members took a somewhat distant view of whatever the local people wanted, and instead forged ahead with iconic schemes such as the Princess Royal Sports Arena , and bought vast swathes of land at taxpayers' expense for projects which often failed to reach fruition.
This "let them eat cake" approach had a predictable result when the Boston Bypass Independents stormed to victory in May 2007
But now the Conservatives, under the new chairmanship of one-time road sweeper, borough councillor Mike Gilbert, are launching a recruitment drive for the 2010 Boston elections.
A new vice-chairman of the Boston Branch of the Boston and Skegness Conservative Association, Andrea Jenkyns, is quoted as saying: "We will be looking for ordinary people with life experience, a big heart, a passion for wanting to help people and to make a positive contribution to the borough."
Her role will be to focus on policy and campaigning, aiming to recruit new members and potential candidates for the borough council elections.
It all sounds a bit like "call me Dave's" Tory party in microcosm.
At least Boston Conservatives have recognised that they have a way to go to overcome the party's past record in power in Boston, and are setting off on the journey in good time.
They must also be heartened by the continuing lacklustre performance of the BBI, which will surely do much (together with the national trend towards the Tories) in making them more electable.
As far as we can see, the only fly in the ointment is that they will have to wait until 2011 before the elections.
That's just over two years - although according to the report on the Boston Standard website the elections are due next year. A mistake made more than once, so it's not just a typing error!
Wishful thinking maybe?

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