The stresses and strains of early selections take their toll...

My Colleague Mark Bigley, the PPC for Southport, has stood down this week, he says for personal and family reasons.

Mark was, along with myself and about 22 others, a member of the small group of parliamentary candidates 'fast-tracked' immediately after the 2005 election in a programme designed to maintain the momentum built up in our seats.

He is the second 'fast track' PPC to resign recently; my good friend Paul Offer packed it in at the end of last year after complaining about dark deeds by some members of his association; but also I suspect because he had concerns about the diverting impact of being a PPC on his career.

The fact is being a candidate and nursing a seat is a huge commitment not just for oneself but also for the family. It is a massive financial commitment, I estimate that the cost to me personally of fighting the 2005 election measured in loss of earnings leading up to the election and then restoring my momentum afterwards, relocation, donations and supporting costs to be well over £150,000. And it is a constant demand on ones time and energy, David Camerons recent two visits to the bay involved me taking three days off work, the election a fourth, all in one month. How lucky I am to have a forgiving boss!

And contrary to popular public imagination we don't get paid a brass razoo for doing the job of PPC.

So I am not surprised that for some the burden is too great, especially as the election looks more and more likely to be 2010 at the earliest.

My best wishes to Mark and his family, he has done a great job there and the party owes him a debt of gratitude.

Is He Already Past his sell-by date?

Now that the painfully elongated departure of Tony Blair has finally begun our minds are turning to his successor Gordon Brown.

Labour are absolutely desperate to prove that they can be 're-born' under new leadership and they are now pinning their entire hopes on this man.

How on earth are they going to achieve this when the man they seem destined to choose to replace Tony Blair has been his partner for the entire New Labour project?

Perhaps they hope that an entirely new 'Brownite' cabinet and some urgent new proposals might convince people that there is some kind of policy renewal going on but somehow I don't think that will work.

Unfortunately for all of us, Tony Blairs true legacy is a reduction in trust in politicians. People nowadays believe what their leaders say less than at any time in history. Unfortunately GB's track record in the 'up front and honest' stakes is even lower than Mr Blair as evidenced by the shockingly sly announcements about abolishing the 10p rate in the last Budget.

So after June 27th I think it will be Gordon Brown. More of the same, without the charm.

Other Victories

I couldn't resist the temptation to have a sneek peek at my old Associations results in Windsor and Maidenhead.

Along with our result here and the turnaround in Bournemouth Windsor and Maidenhead has been the third major upset for the Lib Dems this week.

When I first became involved in politics in 1997 I couldn't understand how we had a seat with a 12,000 commons majority yet regularily lost at local elections to the Lib Dems.

The reason was very similar to the failures here in the 1990's - poor communication by local Conservative councillors and local council candidates.

We weren't losing on the basis that the populace preferred Lib dem ideology, the general election result in Windsor proved that (even here in Torbay there has been no sustained rise in the Lib dem vote since the 1980's , but more on that another day) it was usually because the Lib dems regularily posted good, easy-to-read leaflets through thousands of doors and canvassed; and canvassed.

Then at election time managed to encourage their sometimes lukewarm support to actually vote.

When only 1/3rd of voters turn out, getting your 'side' to do so is the key. Put simply, the LD's were much better at this than we were.

While they tirelessly churned out simple messages, often repeated, tinged with hysterical noises about things that 'might' happen (the school that might close, the hospital that needs 'saving') we would make do with a once in a blue moon leaflet that looked more like a page from the Times (circa 1950) than a political leaflet and usually contained an earnest but boring account of the manfesto about rubbish collections.

I used to use the analogy of us Tories being a old-time boxer squaring up under the Queensberry rules but facing a hoodie brandishing a baseball bat.

Having the best policies is just not enough. Modern politics needs modern campaigning techniques as well.

Web Log Updated!

I have spent a while fully updating my weblog this weekend to bring it up to date and also to try and draw together my website and weblog into one location.

This is an ongoing process and there are bits and elements that don't yet quite match up but I will get this fixed over the coming week.

Please give me your feedback; for instance if you discover a broken link or would like a link added to your site please either leave a comment or contact me using the link on the right.

Another Media Moment...

Well the photoshoot and the TV news are all done and dusted.

David Cameron has kept his promise to come back and congratulate my hard working councillor colleagues who successfully overturned the Lib Dem majority on Torbay Council.

The story behind the headlines is more amusing though, the visit was, er, slightly last minute and as a result not quite as smoothly planned as his previous arrival two weeks ago.

Initially he was planned to fly to the Palace Hotel; but at the last minute the landing was changed to Torbay Boys Grammar school, we get there to find the gates locked and an instant change was decided.... "back to the Palace".

Then with seconds to spare the caretaker arrived and opened the gates and our cars raced onto the playing fields; only to find the pilot hovering a mile away preparing to land - in the wrong place!

So we were to be found on Friday afternoon -with ten minutes to go before his live broadcast was supposed to have started- negotiating over the mobile phone with the helicopter pilot as to just where we were. My chairman and I were madly waving our arms like shipwreck survivors until at last we were spotted by the pilot and Mr Cameron safely landed.

Then it was a mad dash across town to hit the news deadline, a live interview and a couple of recorded sessions; then back in the cars and back to the Grammar school to find ... no helicopter.

The pilot had gone for fuel and decided that taking off there when full of passangers was too dangerous, so another dash across town - back to the Palace Hotel. We said our grateful goodbyes and left them in the cosseting embrace of the palace hotel staff; awaiting the 'copters return.

By now it was getting on for 8.00pm and Mr Cameron had been up all night and then been racing across the country all day. His staff were fretting although he was amazingly laid back and relaxed about the whole thing.

I went home for tea with my kids and as we heard the helicopter pass overhead I settled down to relate the story to guests we had staying for the weekend.

My phone rang - "Marcus, there is a problem at the Palace; David and co are still there - there is a problem with the helicopter, can you get back there and help?"

Apparently in fading light the pilot decided he was unhappy about the Palace lawn and wanted a better spot to take off from!

There was talk of trains from Exeter, would I ferry them there? Or Exeter AIRPORT perhaps, there was just time for helicopter and passengers to meet there....

In the event Paul Uphill of the Palace Hotel provided the solution and suggested a suitable alternative landing spot that the Pilot was happy with and eventually Cameron and co got away at about 8.30pm.

If David Cameron regretted his impulse promise to come back to Torbay he showed no sign of it.

Meanwhile I'd just like to apologise to Mrs Cameron for the late arrival of her husband home from work on Friday.

I expect the news that we won nearly double the number of council seats we were expecting nationwide was enough to compensate, though!

The end of the beginning?

This is a picture of the election of Kevin Carroll at a by election in 2004 which was a pivotal point in Torbay politics.

His victory -in a formerly safe Lib Dem ward- marked the first point at which the Conservatives in Torbay began a concerted and planned political fight back based on a proper alternative vision for Torbay rather than relying on the occasional 'get lucky' wins here and there.

The campaign that culminated in last nights resounding victory in Torbay was based on a determination to 'stop the rot' that has infected not just the fabric of Torbay itself but also the politics of the place.

The councillors on our side who won stood because they want to take Torbay back in the direction we know it needs to go in order be prosperous again; so the campaign was about the future of the bay; not the future of bay politicians. Others may have tried to personalise the campaign but we have stuck firmly to the issues and politics - and especially our vision for the future.

Fortunately the electorate appear to have noticed the lack of any alternative vision from the other parties, save a lot of campaigning about what they didn't want ('No' to a casino, 'No' to a hot air balloon, 'No' to any solution of Oldway, etc, etc). Simply campaigning with no purpose other than hanging on to power is seen through by the electorate.

Some outstanding talent has at last been sent to the Town Hall, people with track records of running successful businesses and organisations and there will be a much needed improvement in the quality of decisions and the level of scrutiny.

So last night is 'the end of the beginning' of the project to turn Torbay round.

Just how big an issue is the Casino going to be?

Having seen the last of the Lib Dems leaflets it is clear that the party are 'betting the farm' politically on the Casino issue.

Nearly every leafelt carries references to the fact that the Casino bid and suggests that somehow this is an unpopular issue being foisted upon and unwilling populace.

One of the most difficult calls in politics sometimes is separating issues that some people feel very strongly about (and accordingly make a lot of noise about) from issues that most people worry over.

In my opinion survey less that 2% of respondants considered the Casino to be Torbays most important issue (regardless of being pro-or anti) and I wonder what hard working famailes worrying about their Council tax or the environment will make of the Lib Dems campaign.

I think that because a couple of very influential Lib Dems are personally dead set against the Casino has this skewed their campaign?

Tonight we will find out.