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Once more Welsh politics and the Wales Labour Party in particular, have been shaken out of their comfort zone. For some time we had all expected a challenge by Labour Assembly Member, Peter Law, against his own party in Blaenau Gwent. It was likely that this could have led to the loss of Labour's safest seat. However, Peter Law withdrew, due to being diagnosed with a brain tumour. Having

Adoption meeting went without a hitch - which is just as well really!! Bigger turn out than four years ago and a nice buzz afterwards afterwards as people mingled- there were also a few new faces which is always good to see. Tony Barron (nick name "The Alton Rottweiler") did the financial appeal and sais some surprisingly nice things about me. Memo note - must ask Liz to make sure he goes and

To Cupernham first thing this morning to meet some constituents about an ongoing problem. I've always thought it quite important to try and help with some of the local stuff even though, strictly speaking, I could pass it on to councillors. I can't always help and sometimes things fall through the net but as I have been around and about a lot of people have thanked me for helping them - or even

At last someone has written something sensible in the Guardian about feminist Andrea Dworkin, who died a few days ago. Today's article by Havana Marking provided an antidote to the sheer drivel written in the paper earlier this week. I found the urge to write an abusive post here almost irresistible on Tuesday, when the Guardian carried an article by Katharine Viner, an obituary and another

Today has been a day of steady canvassing- in Marlow this morning and in Wycombe in the afternoon and evening. If I believe our figures then we are going to have an excellent result. As we canvassed along the London Road, the response was astonishing- from the motorists. We were tooted, cheered and waved at. None of the team had seen such a marked display of enthusiasm by the voters. It was a great high- and the canvass returns were very solid indeed. The Tory vote was invisible- as we expected since it is not a very Tory area. However ...

He is not taking the chance of visiting Longbridge as far as I know. The announcement has been made of 5,000 redundancies. There is clearly a ripple effect that occurs for other organisations as well. The big question for the weekend is whether it is possible to produce a stable smaller business making cars. If that can be done then there are more positive options for the future. What is

In between the showers I nip in to write up some more for this blog,while the rain continues to tip down. When it slackens, off we go again. This morning in Marlow we find plenty of Conservatives, but their confident optimism, so evident a few days ago, is gone. They remain confident for the local result, but their heads are down- the hopes of Michael Howard have come to little, and they now realise that the country as a whole does not like the thin and narrow approach that they have brought to the campaign. Another opinion poll shows their ...

Hopefully my nomination form has been handed in. Am really pleased that both Tory and Labour supporters have signed it too (some of them are going to vote for me too) Saw the Conservatives in action last night. They were canvassing the bit we did the night before. Hope that it was still going the same direction (they might be quite disappointed). Foxprint are currently doing some posters for me. Am quite excited. We're going to get them in windows soon! Sent out a really long email last night trying to get members to ...

The headline story in today's Times confirms my view that the big story on election night won't be who's won but who's stolen the votes. The evidence suggests that fraud in this election is large-scale, systematic and impossible to police. The Times report begins, Applications for postal votes for the general election have risen by up to 500 per cent in marginal seats, sparking concern about the

Slightly outdated since I was canvassing Wednesday and this is Friday but... I was canvassing some flats. I arrived at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading up to a door halfway up a wall (Bristle is a bit like this) and there was a man, a guitar and a cat at the top of the stairs on this very narrow wrought-iron railed landing. I enquired if he was an occupant of any of the flats I had listed since I had to canvass them. He said he was attending a guitar lesson at the middle flat. After some ...

Having previously had a debate over what theme tune the various political parties should adopt we now have the Guardian exploring the musical tastes of our politicians. Charles Kennedy confesses to listening to David Bowie and folk music, George Galloway compares Bob Dylan to Shakespeare whilst Oliver Letwin confesses that he has never really listened to pop music. Lembit Opik praises Elvis

I am well known for my love of bright and colourful (but classy) ties. Some have speculated that I joined the Liberals and subsequently the Liberal Democrats, because of their use of dayglo orange posters. I was very amused therefore by this tongue-in-cheek comment on Sandra Gidley's blog: Dayglo orange....dazzles drivers whilst going past and full of artificial preservatives. Have a habit of

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. I met a man who was part of the British Army unit first into the camp. It was an appalling shock. Although Auschwitz had been liberated, it had been taken by the Russians, and the descriptions of the horrors there had been discounted, and anyway were not widely known. For the British Army units who entered Belsen, it was an experience that few could talk about even decades later. The old soldier's description of Belsen was a series of staccato and horrific snap shots. The piles of ...

Early to bed - early to rise! I guess the election adrenalin must have kicked. Having fallen asleep to the first strains of Desperate Housewives (which I had been hoping to watch for a moments respite) I wake up at 3.45am. Lie there 'til 6am then finally decide pointless exercise. Off canvassing with Ed Davey MP who is our Shadow Deputy Prime Minister. The doorstep feel is remarkably similar

Robert Kilroy-Silk, the Man with the Tan, launched the Veritas Party's manifesto on Thursday morning. I'm using the term 'party' advisedly, since normally it would imply a political movement rather than a one-man band. The target of his attack was "liberal fascists". I'm trying to picture what one might look like but, no, the Nazi uniform just doesn't go with the beard and sandals. What can he