Missing leaflets

With Euro postal ballot papers arriving on voters' doormats, I have so far received leaflets from the Lib Dems, UKIP and BNP - but nothing yet from Labour or the Conservatives - what's going on? Interestingly, I've been told that postmen working in Darlington have been told they need not deliver the BNP leaflet if they object to it! Maybe that option extends to all the parties, and they're refusing to deliver the Tory and Labour ones!

As usual today, as with almost every day for the past few weeks, I'll spend an hour or two delivering Fiona Hall's tabloid newspaper in Darlington.

So far our small local team has delivered 22,000 of these tabloids - we have the inky fingers to prove it - with many more to go. With her Annual Report delivered earlier in the year, and our ward and PPC Focuses also featuring Fiona prominently, households across the constituency have had plenty of reminders about just how hard she's worked for them since her famous election five years ago.

And yet last night an email arrived from a good friend of mine in the local party wondering whether, even with our party's relatively blameless exposure to the MP's expenses scandal, all that work will be wasted come June 4th if some of our vote slides away to the fringe parties. I'm certain his worries are unfounded: Fiona will be re-elected with a larger share of the vote than last time.

But it is clear that all politicians from all parties at all levels are being tarred with the same brush. It's a rough ride out there at the moment. Even some of our FREEPOST envelopes going out with my PPC Focus are coming in stuffed with abusive comments about politicians.