Wiltshire Tories 'must do more'

By Dave Harvey Political correspondent, Bristol

Your best chance of having your baby kissed by a politician is in Swindon.

If just thinking about the prospect makes you recoil, head to Devizes where Conservative Michael Ancram had an 11,896 majority last time.

Labour have their own problems in Swindon South

Last year the Conservatives took control of the local council in Swindon for the first time in over 20 years, and the party is on a roll.

It has a lot of young support, for instance, including a handful of councillors under 30, who barely even remember Mrs Thatcher.

They went knocking on doors asking people if they thought the council was well run (social services and education officially "failing"; council tax up by three times inflation).

With a Labour council and a Labour government, the Tories could only win - and they did.

Marginal seat

But now people have had a year of Conservative council control, the Tories must do more.

Labour have their own problems - in Swindon South, the more marginal of the town's two seats, the Labour MP is resigning.

Julia Drown has chaired the Commons Maternity Services Committee, and made a name for asking to breast feed in the chamber.

Now she wants to spend more time with her three children, and a new woman, Anne Snelgrove, must fight the corner.

Military families

Elsewhere in the county, the Conservatives will be worried if they lose any of their fairly strong seats.

As well as Devizes, they hold Salisbury and Westbury, although Westbury has seen a degree of support for the Lib Dems over the Iraq war, which has directly affected many military families there.

The strongest Liberal Democrat challenge is in North Wiltshire, where they missed out by less than 4,000 votes last time.

They say they "have the best chance ever" of winning the seat, and plan to fight it by pushing the Lib Dems' national agenda.

They could be helped by a strong showing for the UK Independence Party, which did well here in last year's European election.

But the Conservative incumbent has a high local and national profile, leading the fight against the ban on hunting.

All sides will be watching closely to see if that becomes a big election issue here - or anywhere else in the West country.

Other candidates known to be standing in Swindon South and Devizes are:

Devizes: Fiona Hornby (Lib Dems), Sharon Charity (Labour)

Swindon South: Robert Buckland (Cons), Sue Stebbing (Lib Dems)