Ed Vaizey is the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Wantage and Didcot. He is writing a campaign diary for us. Today he notes a quiet start to campaigning, 'real anger' at Tony Blair ... and the important question of public conveniences.
"The feeling on the ground is what you would expect. Apart from traditional Labour voters, there is real anger at Tony Blair. People really do not seem to like him. They don't actually mention the war, and I don't think it is the war."
Ed Vaizey writes:
"The campaign has now started in earnest. Last week was a bit of a phoney war, as everyone knew that people would be more interested in the Pope and the prince rather than the politicians.
"In Wantage, everything is still low key. The schools are still on holiday, and it seems a lot of the population is as well. Our posters are going up, but not those of our opponents.
"The feeling on the ground is what you would expect. Apart from traditional Labour voters, there is real anger at Tony Blair. People really do not seem to like him. They don't actually mention the war, and I don't think it is the war. I think - and the polls show - it is the feeling that Blair will say or do anything to get elected. It's this attitude that has damaged politics so badly.
"Another Labour politician who has damaged the public's view of politics is Robert Jackson. Last Saturday he broke his promise to me and campaigned in the constituency. I guess breaking a promise is now a rite of passage if you want to join New Labour. All I can say is - carry on. There is genuine anger from voters about Robert's defection. They see it as a breach of contract. Every time Robert is out, he reminds them of this.
"There is little evidence of the Liberals. They have had a bad time of late, following the Lib Dem council's decision to cut travel tokens for pensioners and close tourist information offices, as well as closing the outdoor pool in Abingdon.
"That led to full-scale demonstrations and the issue of the Lib Dem cuts has completely dominated the letters pages of the Wantage Herald.
"One aspect of being a candidate is that you are sent lorry loads of manifestos by numerous pressure groups. The best by far is the e-mail from the British Toilet Association. Now I know how the people who received the Henry Root letters felt. I just cannot work out if it's genuine.
"You see, loos are a very serious business. Michael Howard organised a petition to save loos in his constituency at Shepway last year. He get 20,000 signatures, and subsequently flushed the Lib Dems off the local council. The issue of new loos for Didcot was even front page news here last week. So for once, the bombardment has come up trumps. The British Toilet Association arrived just in the nip of time, and I thank them for that."
