How many voting papers on May 5th?

This must be something of a local record. On May 5th we have votes for the AV referendum, the mayor, an MP for Leicester South and for local ward councillors. For those in the Labour Party, this has already followed weeks of canvassing for those wishing to be selected as official candidates for the Mayor and then to be the candidate for Leicester South.

A new house party game: ask visitors to explain the AV system of voting. As a warm up, we ask for an explanation of the off-side rule. Success at this does not ensure success at explaining AV but it is fun.

Next, who will be the first elected Mayor of Leicester? There is little apparent enthusiasm for such a departure with a number of the candidates announcing that, if elected, they will work for either the end of the post or for a referendum on such a post. The candidates, or some of them, have been making themselves available at 'hustings' (more correctly, Q&As) at various venues. The BBC staged one such at (the) Curve and there will be one at the LGBT centre. What is unclear is how many candidates will absent themselves from this and other so called 'hustings'. The Gay Centre meeting will be instructive if it reveals the extent of candidates' awareness of conflicts between sexual/gender minority groups and religious groups with homonegative agendas. Does ONE Leicester include LGBT people? If so, where or how is this represented in city council literature? The BBC meeting at Curve was allegedly 'representative' of the demographic of the city. It was unclear how this was achieved.

The election of a new MP for the Leicester South constituency is made necessary by the resignation of the sitting Labour member, and former leader of the city council, Sir Peter Soulsby.  The local labour party chose Jonathan Ashworth as its candidate. The liberal democrats have chosen a local man who is campaigning against the labour candidate on the grounds that he comes "from Mansfield". Parochialism knows no limits. We await the depths the campaign may plumb in the next few weeks as the lib-dems attempt to defeat labour. It would be dangerous for anyone to assume that the seat is in the bag.

Meanwhile, local would-be councillors are busy knocking on doors, well some are. When the tory man came round here, we were pleased that he took the time to listen to our concerns even though he was aware that there were not likely to be any votes for him here. We will be pleased to see the lib-dems to ask what is meant by their 'anti Mansfield' campaign - is it official party policy?

Watch this space