So how will former Labour AM for Preseli Pembrokeshire Tamsin Dunwoody fare in next week's Crewe and Nantwich by-election as she tries to win the seat held for so long by her formidable mother? Well, on a completely unscientific basis, here's my survey: driving through the constituency yesterday here's the number of placards in people's gardens I saw. Lib Dem Elizabeth Shenton (one), Tamsin Dunwoody ("One of us") (Two), Conservative candidate and heir to a cobbling empire Edward Timpson (Lots and lots and lots).
Still, Labour might actually make some headway with their attempts to portray Timpson, a lawyer who lives 15 miles away in leafy Tarporley, as a toff. Driving towards the town's station along Gresty Road, I was stuck behind a humungous 4x4, which was turning right onto an estate but had paused to let out (and wave at) a gleaming blue soft-top sports car. What was going on? Then it hit me: this was the property the Tories had rented out for the duration of the campaign. The vehicles looked more than a little incongruous alongside the street's terraced houses, built on the grounds of the town's former cattle market; maybe Labour aren't being too foolish playing up the class card after all.