The Spectator’s Notes | 24 April 2010

Hastings, the town where I was born and near which I live, is a marginal seat (Labour majority of 2,000). Since the election was called, I have been visiting it to ‘take the temperature’. I follow a canvass, or stop people in the street and ask their opinion. In the first week, Labour was unpopular, the Tories were tepidly favoured and the Liberal Democrats were barely mentioned. This week, after the effects of the previous Thursday’s leaders’ debate, Labour was unpopular, the Tories were tepidly favoured, and the Liberal Democrats were up. Out of ten people I approached, one had deserted Labour for the Tories, one had deserted Labour for abstention, one had done the same for the Tories, and one had left Labour for the Liberals because of Nick Clegg’s television performance. The rest were staying put. A Kurdish waiter, standing on top of a large rubbish bin to flatten cardboard boxes for recycling, shouted down to me that the only one worth anything was Tony Blair.