Aliens in London

The new Doctor Who continues to impress as does their amusing use of the internet to promote the show.

http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk/

has it's own amusing take on the Ed Matts photo controversy.

Tory tactics

The Tories seem to be making a bit of habit of getting into trouble in the campaign so far.

First dear Michael got his crime figures wrong:

http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/oxfordshire/archive/2005/03/22/TOPNEWS0ZM.html

Then the Winchester Tory candidate got into trouble over a website:

http://www.thisiswinchester.co.uk/hampshire/echowinchester/news/ECHOWINCHESTER_NEWS_NEWS5.html

And the Tory campaign in Guildford is accused of racism:

http://www.surreyad.co.uk/news/index.html?article15090

And Ed Matts (an amusing chap - I remember him telling me how he wa definitely winning Oxford West & Abingdon and that my County seat was a gonner at the last election) is in hot water in Dorset:

http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=628733&host=3&dir=62

And then it's back to dear Michael again - and this time it's MRSA figures that he is exagerating:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4449681.stm

I suppose you can't criticise these hapless PPCs - they are clearly just following the leadership line;-)

(And this is the guy who says Blair can't be trusted!)

From the blogs

A particularly hard-hitting clip on Tim Ireland's excellent Backing Blair site:

http://www.backingblair.co.uk/the_line/

It does contain some disturbing images so please don't view it if you are easily offended.

On a more humerous note:

http://www.gbjab.com/

is very amusing.

The campaign so far ...

I had intended to post regularly on the election campaign so far, but have been too busy. So this a brief round-up.

In the past week or so I have visited several seat we hope to win on May 5th, and overall the mood is very positive.

The highlight for me was visiting Folkestone & Hythe last week where we are running a very strong campaign to unseat Tory Leader Michael Howard. I drove into the seat from the west - through Romney Marsh - traditionally the weaker end of the seat for us. But even here I was greeted by a large number of Peter Carroll' stakeboards. In Folkestone itself the display was very impressive. There were hardly any Howard posters. Our candidate Peter Carroll is getting a lot of help from several Gurkhas - and boy can they deliver leaflets fast!

We are also doing well in seats where we are fighting Labour. The team in Watford are really boyant. It looks like many former Tory voters there have realised that the Lib Dems are the real challengers this time and are switching in droves. A brief visit to Brent East was also very positive - there are already more Sarah Teather boards up than we had by the end of the by-election. She has worked really hard since the by-election and the voters seem to be recognising this.

Another seat we are doing really well in is New Forest East. Again I was met with a very impressive poster display, and the campaign HQ is being deluged with requests for posters, offers of help etc.

Overall the feel is very positive with the Lib Dem vote solid and enthusiastic and voters coming across from both the other parties for poltiical and tactical reasons.