I was pleased to be interviewed by the editor of Out in the City, a free lifestyle magazine distributed throughout the LGBT community.  The magazine interviewed candidates from four political parties.  What was very good to note was the positive reaction from the editor towards the four candidates, an acknowledgement that politics has finally moved on and the Conservatives really are as much of an option as any other political party whatever a voter's sexual orientation.  The interview can be found on-line here.

There has been much talk of opinion polls and the potential of a hung parliament in recent days.  There has also, for the first time in years, been discussion about Labour, led by Gordon brown, leading the country beyond the Summer.

Regular readers of this blog will know I never really get very excited about opinion polls.  The people of Eltham will, eventually, have their say and that is the only opinion poll I will take notice of.  But what recent polls do help to do is remind people of the very real choice they face: more of the same tired, discredited, deceitful, incompetent, self-serving bunch led by Gordon Brown.  Or a fresh new government led by a team full of ambition for the people of this country, ready to get our economy moving again by cutting red tape and taxes; a government prepared to tackle immigration and reduce it to levels not seen since the 1990s; an administration ready to put police back on the streets, to fix our schools, to fix our broken society and to safeguard frontline services including the NHS.

Our country needs a change in direction.  We need that change urgently.  I believe people are fed up and angry with Labour and with politicians generally.  It's my hope that I can play a part in restoring our political system and our country.  It won't be easy, but it starts here in Eltham.  It's time for change.  Soon, it will be time to vote for change.  It can't come soon enough.

Leadership is about being brave, principled and taking tough decisions even when such actions may not immediately help your own cause.

Today David Cameron made a speech in East London.  He set out how he would start to rebuild trust in our political system - a challenge that should not be under-estimated.  Among the many very welcome commitments was a pledge that any petition with 100,000 signatures will be eligible for a parliamentary debate; and any petition with 1 million+ signatures would lead to a Bill being presented to Parliament.  

There will be times when parliamentarians will despair of ever having introduced this power.  That is how it should be!  MPs are there to represent the public who elect them.  And I believe the more they are seen to be 'in touch' with the feeling of the public, the more politics will seem relevant to the public.

These may seem like small measures, but think how little direct influence members of the public have over legislators at the moment.  Suddenly, under these proposals, there will be a real purpose to debate among the public - and not only in the run up to elections.  In addition to a reduction in the number and cost of MPs and greater transparency over issues like remuneration, and stronger limits on political lobbyists, today's speech proves who has the required leadership qualities in Westminster.  

It has been announced that Esther Rantzen is to stand as an 'anti-sleaze' candidate in Luton - despite the fact the current MP who was caught up in the scandal, will not be a candidate.

As a child I regularly watched Esther Rantzen's show, That's Life!  She was a genuine consumer champion as well as a great observer of life in Britain.  She made me and my family laugh along with millions of others.  She went on to help establish Childline, a charity that has done enormous good to help vulnerable abused and bullied children.

However, it seems to me that she has used this sorry saga of MPs' abuse of the expenses system to try to carve a new career for herself.  in itself, that wouldn't be a problem.  She may even have the ability to be a good MP.  But standing in a constituency where none of the other candidates has been implicated in the scandal, when she has absolutely no local connection, seems to me to be nothing more than a vanity exercise.  And for that reason, she has cheapened herself and her previously good reputation.  That makes me very sad.

...and although the doorstep questions continued to be dominated by MPs' expenses, most people were pleased to hear what the Conservatives plan to do to mend Britain's broken society and broken economy, as well as repairing our broken political system at Westminster.

A selection of comments from people I spoke to between 10am and 4.40pm today:

• They're all the same, I won't vote for anyone
• Clive Efford's useless, I've emailed him six times and spoken to someone in his office but he hasn't helped me.  I won't be voting Labour again.
• I like David Cameron but how do I know you'll do what you say?  I'll read what you've said here and make my mind up.
• The sooner the better.  I'll be voting for you, don't worry about that!
• I'm a postman and our chief executive had a 700K bonus while telling us he needs to make savings.  No wonder MPs are taking everything they can get if they can get away with it!
• My main worry is crime.  Next door was broken into a few weeks ago, but the police haven't got the resources to tackle burglary.
• the football's on, you couldn't have called at a worse time, but I'll take a leaflet...