Weighed myself again this morning. Lost another 4lb. Lucky I put on a stone since the last election – clearly knowing that I would need blubber to see me through.

The evening brings the Friends of the Earth hustings. We cover a whole range of issues – including mobile phone masts, the WTO, climate change and supermarkets. The evening goes well for me – which I am relieved about as some of these ‘specialist’ hustings can become extremely detailed.

However, four years on from the last Friends of the Earth hustings, I realise that I know a lot more than I did then. And it’s not just the text book policy stuff – it’s living, breathing issues in Hornsey & Wood Green.

Issue such as the mobile phone mast applications which pop up virtually weekly – and where only legislation to give local authorities to refuse planning permission on grounds of the ‘precautionary principle’ will actually help keep masts away from schools and vulnerable adults. (The Lib Dems put down a motion in the Commons on this – but Labour and Tories took up the debating time so it didn’t progress.)

It’s about the supermarkets – not just the big ones – but the little ones appearing now on local high streets and putting the old corner shops out of business. It’s about the need for traffic to be sucked back where it should be – onto the North Circular – where the Mayor’s failure to grasp the nettle and put paid to the bottleneck has meant misery in the residential streets of Muswell Hill, Alexandra and Bounds Green. Real issues!

After the hustings – I go out to dinner with Duncan (who is helping me with some of my paperwork during the election and is the world’s expert on illegal logging – which sadly, but not surprisingly, didn’t come up).

He is writing a biography of Charles K and has spent the previous day on the LibDem battle bus. Says it was interesting and hectic dashing around the country with our leader. Duncan says Charles is in good form and that he has been invited back for another day on the bus – which he has declined in favour of coming to help me. Mucho flattered!