Douglas Carswell

Change is in the air in Clacton

The past few days in Clacton feel unlike any campaign I've experienced before.

There is a freshness and enthusiasm in the air. As summer turns to autumn, there are hints that perhaps the political season is changing, too.

We've had to do a second print run of window posters to keep up with demand. Folk who would never previously have even considered voting Conservative are now cheerfully helping former Tory party members deliver leaflets calling for choice and competition in politics.

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When I was first elected to Parliament in 2005, I was horrified to discover the extent to which Clacton's sea front had been neglected.

Maintaining the sea wall and beach had once been the responsibility of the old Clacton town and district council. During the out-of-season winter months, local building firms would be commissioned by the town council to repair and restore the sea wall and the beach groynes. The arrangements worked well.

Then, of course, Ted Heath restructured local government, abolishing the old town council. The old arrangements, like the rotting groynes, abandoned.

Slowly but surely the beach was washed away. The sea wall started to collapse. Holland-on-Sea was on track to become Holland-in-Sea.

Then in 2006 I called a meeting in the town hall, backed by the local beach hut owners and others. That led onto a meeting with ministers and Environment Agency. They eventually found the money.

Work began this summer on a £36 million project restore the sea front. It will give us some of the best beaches in England.

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Talking of beaches, I found a fossilised shark's tooth on the beach at Walton on the Naze on Sunday. On a family walk with the dog, I at last spotted something I have been on the lookout for for years. They are not uncommon in these parts – but until Sunday I'd never managed to find one.

Still razor sharp, I held it in the palm of my hand contemplating the tens of millions of years that separate us from the fearsome creature that produced it. It puts certain things into perspective.

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Thursday marks three weeks until polling day. The halfway point.

Perhaps it is a sign of middle age, or maybe it's just the sheer intensity of a by-election, but it can be exhausting. At the same time, I have found the past few days exhilarating. There is a massive appetite out there for real political change.

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The big, corporate parties like to talk about election "battle grounds". They send out "battle buses" to fight them and coordinate it all from "war rooms".

Why such aggressive language? Politics ought to be an act of persuasion, not combat. To win an election you need to bring people together, no?

I suspect that the school boy language tell us about the school boy mind set of many of those that run the big political parties.

Here in Clacton we don't have a "war room". We have an open office, and we give people warm welcomes and big smiles.

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