UK election diary: Dogged by blogs

The campaign has witnessed an explosion of blogs - web logs - authored by political snipers tearing chunks out of the bombast pouring from party media machines.

The main topics are those that have dominated what has universally been dubbed a dull campaign: immigration, education, the economy, crime, taxation, the Iraq invasion and above all whether any politicians can be trusted.

The blog that caused the biggest stir was a spoof of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Machiavellian election strategist Alastair Campbell which was written by a 30-year-old woman working in the marketing department of an on-line bookmaker.

Strongest link

Richard Kimber of Keele University has pulled together links to hundreds of websites and blogs.

Another links site is at eDemocracy.

A blog at notapathetic.com allows people not planning to vote to explain why.

Fashion action

Blair took defensive action after finding himself trumped in the fashion stakes yesterday by Opposition leader Michael Howard.

Spectators observed the Prime Minister was wearing a tie at the start of a press conference in a south London school. By the time he emerged from the school, the tie had gone.

Meanwhile Howardwas filmed pounding the streets, tieless, in a fetching pink shirt.

The 838,000 who matter

The Conservatives have embraced a vote-winning United States political computer system to target potential swing voters, according to Campbell.

Conservative Party campaign documents showed the Tories believed they needed to target just 838,000 voters in 165 key marginal constituencies to overturn Labour's parliamentary majority.

Using the Voter Vault computer system imported from the US, the Conservatives have individually identified potential swing voters in the marginal seats, he said.

Solid Labour or Conservative voters are ignored; the undecided are bombarded with leaflets and doorstep calls.

Naked ambition

Theresa May, a Tory frontbencher, revealed yesterday that she once canvassed a naked man.

She found the nudist in his garden and "spent a stimulating five minutes" discussing the health service.

- INDEPENDENT , AGENCIES