Mary Reid

I went to help in the by-election at Ealing Southall today and found myself appointed as an official Liberal Democrat balloon carrier.

First we had squeeze them into a train to take us to Ealing Broadway - here is a colleague trying to control his bunch.

Once there, our job was to position the balloons beside the posters, as a backdrop to Ming Campbell, Paddy Ashdown and, of course, our candidate Nigel Bakhai. 

It's a very odd election. Tory Central Office imposed their candidate Tony Lit on the local party even though he had only become a member of the Conservatives a couple of days before. And bizarrely, he had made a donation of £4800 to the Labour Party and been photographed shaking hands with Tony Blair only two weeks before that! The Telegraph has the story.

I didn't see a single picture of the Labour candidate around the constituency, even though the seat had been held by a popular Labour MP, and I can't even remember the candidate's name. In fact, there are hardly any posters up at all in the windows of the people who live there, so it is very difficult to gauge the impact of the election campaign.

Balloon carrier view of Nigel Bakhai (right) and Ming Campbell (next to him)

I spent the next few hours delivering leaflets. The Lib Dems are treating the campaign with great enthusiasm, with loads of helpers from around the country. I think there might be an interesting outcome on Thursday.