Campaign Diary: Lost count of the days! Some fine people and the excellent cake girls

War Memorial at Cullingworth

Another day out and about - glorious sunny weather (although the garden tells me it could use a shower or two) and plenty of smiling folk about. Here are a few I met:

• Attractive Asian woman supervising the refurbishment of a semi-detached house in Cottingley - very cheery and keen to move in (although from the look of it a bit to go yet).
• Lady in curlers chasing me down the street (well sort of) to tell me about the ongoing campaign to keep the heart surgery unit in Leeds.
• Rather annoyed bloke - not at me but at the idiots who threw an egg at his door while he was away. Quite a job to scrub it off. Why do kids do this sort of thing?
• Doug - who runs the police contact point in Cottingley which we hope to persuade them to keep open. A really useful service provided for just a few quid each year

And in all this I've found little seething anger at the government - some genuine concern about specific services and particular issues but none of the rage that pundits (left-wing ones at least) speak about. The angriest conversations have been about pensions, council tax and the smoking ban.

However, the day's highlight came in the early evening at home. Three girls - 15 years old or so - knocked at the door selling cakes. Not for a charity, not as some school project. But simply to make some money. I approve of this - initiative, production and chutzpah. These girls deserve to succeed - and probably will.

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