Hi it's Ed Milliband

At a wedding for a Labour party friend on Saturday I received a text from "Ed Milliband" canvassing my vote for the Labour leadership election. I replied with "N" though according to his official page 45% of respondents wet the other way and voted "yes". I suspect that might be because those who responded were more inclined to show their support than those who didn't bother at all - because they were not backing his campaign.

Text messaging members was dubbed groundbreaking by Ed's campaign. That it may beand any further means of easily communicating with party members is a good thing. It doesn't give me a reason to vote for him. I worry that he is playing to the Labour Party gallery to gain favour in the leadership election. I don't believe he is strong enough to stand up to the party and ensure that Labour takes back the centre ground, without which no party can win power in the UK.

"Ed" replied to my "no" asking for my support as a second preference. "He" asked if there was anything he could do to convince me. I replied with my worry that he won't be able to stop Labour lurching to the left, keeping us in opposition. I have been promised that his team will be in touch with me in the next five days. I'm looking forward to engaging with his team, even though I doubt there is much they, or "Ed", can do to make me change my mind.

I praise Ed's campaign for engaging me in this way, one of several text message canvasses by his campaign according to Labour List. Now is the time to see if he has the balls to do the right thing for Labour.

UPDATE: I have also been informed by someone who replied "yes" that their follow up text from "Ed" asked if they were willing to volunteer for his campaign. This is likely to be the source of the large number of additional volunteers his campaign has announced.