Clive Lewis for Norwich South

I spent last Saturday afternoon  at a selection meeting where the Labour Party were choosing a parliamentary candidate for the Norwich South seat. It's currently held by Simon Wright for the Lib Dems, and to say that he's a political bantam-weight would be an insult to chickens, and a lot of attention has been focused on winning the seat back. I'd supported Victoria McDonald all the way through the campaign, but I thought it was a strong field of candidates. Unfortunately Victoria, who was the most passionate but least media-savvy on the short-list, had an off-day, and lost her way during her presentation, fluffed a couple of answers to questions from the floor, and generally just seemed flustered. Joe Greenberg, a councillor in Haringay, was the only one that didn't really convince me, and he got hit by a haymaker from an old lady who asked him why he'd sold off council housing stock in his borough. Dave Rowntree, the Blur drummer, gave a slightly stilted presentation, but was impressive answering questions, and Clive Lewis, a Look East reporter, came across very well, and was very witty.
In the end, Clive won, and gave a  good old tub-thumping off-the cuff acceptance speech. We held up Labour Party boards, had our photographs taken with him, then headed home confident that we can win the seat back at the next election - which really can't come soon enough.