A tale of two constituencies

Labour wheels out the big guns in Brent East

With the parties targeting key marginals like never before, it sometimes feels as if there are two election campaigns going on.

The BBC News website's Brian Wheeler put the theory to the test in two very different west London constituencies.

It is hard not to feel a little self-conscious when you are standing next to the mayor of London in your stocking feet, in front of a room full of people who have recently been kneeling in prayer.

The mayor - introduced as "his excellency" Ken Livingstone - is on the campaign trail at his local mosque and Islamic centre in Brent East.

What is the point in voting on 5 May if you live in a safe Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat seat? Is the voting system fair?

This is his former parliamentary constituency and he is welcomed like an old friend, as he prepares to address lunchtime worshippers on the importance of voting Labour on 5 May.

Your reporter, who has been chatting to Mr Livingstone in a side room, has also received a warm welcome.

But any hopes I had of melting into the background as the mayor is led to the podium prove optimistic due to lack of floorspace, and I am left standing at the front of the hall for the duration of his speech, taking the occasional note and trying not to look too conspicuous.

Key marginal

Perhaps sensing my discomfort, Mr Livingstone points out that I am a BBC reporter - another example, he adds, of how important Brent East is to this general election.

Jeremy Coleman plans to vote Lib Dem

This, I can't help thinking, is how general elections are meant to be - the party big guns throwing their weight behind the local candidate.

Impassioned speeches about how every vote counts.

But Brent East a key marginal.

And this election, perhaps more than any previous one, has been a tale of two contests - the marginal constituencies, where the big parties are targeting their firepower, their advertising spend and their core message, and all the rest.

As if to prove the point, as I leave I overhear Mr Livingstone explaining to someone that he only has time to visit seats in London with a majority of less than 5,000.

Walking around the streets of Brent, it is possible to detect, if not exactly full-blown election fever, then the sense that something is afoot.

Labour supporters like to keep a lower profile Yasmine Qureshi, Labour candidate, Brent East

There are party colours displayed in windows and gardens, and people chat about the relative merits of the candidates in cafes and restaurants.

The Iraq war crops up in conversation - Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather snatched Brent East from Labour in a by-election last year on an anti-war ticket.

But people are also concerned about pressure on local services and housing.

Conservative 'surprise'

Miss Teather's agent tells me, with a gleam in his eye, that the party is already on its third election leaflet and has erected 170 diamond-shaped boards in local front gardens.

Manoj Develamunige is sticking with Labour

"It is classic Lib Dem-ology." he adds.

"Labour supporters like to keep a lower profile," says Labour candidate Yasmine Qureshi, when I ask her why Lib Dem posters seem to outnumber Labour ones.

Ms Qureshi was a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq and believes she has a real chance of winning.

She feels the fact that she is a Muslim woman helps her, even though the majority of Brent East's population is white. She is also keen to point out that she lives in the constituency, contrary to the Lib Dem claim on its literature that she is "Tony Blair's candidate from Hertfordshire".

Kwazi Kwarteng, the 29-year-old fund manager contesting the seat for the Conservatives, feels he could spring a surprise.

But he says he is disappointed that Brent East is not regarded as a target seat by Conservative campaign headquarters.

"If this is to be seen as a no-go area, then it is just a massive mistake," he says as he dashes off to visit a local mosque.

Tactical vote

The candidates' frenetic activity seems to have rubbed off on the Brent East voters.

"I am not normally a voter. I am not a political animal, but it is all about personalities, so I will be voting this time - and I will not be voting for Tony Blair," says Jeremy Coleman, a photographer.

Chris Golding is thinking what Mr Howard is thinking

Judith Meadows, out shopping in Kensal Rise, said: "For the first time, I won't be voting Labour, because of the war in Iraq."

She said it was "tactical vote", as she still expected Labour to get in again.

Manoj Develamunige, a bus company worker who came to the UK 20 years ago from Sri Lanka, is sticking with Labour.

"I have always voted Labour. They have always looked after people in this area. The Iraq war has not made me change my mind," he says.

Enthusiasm

In nearby Kensington and Chelsea, it seems, at first, to be a very different story.

There is little sense on the streets of this ultra-safe Conservative seat that an election is taking place at all. There are no posters in windows or boards in gardens.

The Conservative HQ, a swish suite of offices off the King's Road, is thrumming with purposeful activity.

But rather than welcoming me with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake as they did in Brent East, where the Tory HQ is in the back room of a pub, I am told I need to make an appointment.

The Labour and Lib Dem campaigns were not available at, admittedly, very short notice either.

But there is no lack of enthusiasm among voters.

"I will be voting Conservative I think," says Catriona Davies, a 23-year-old medical student.

"I think matrons are a good idea, although I think the whole MRSA thing has been exaggerated.

"We never have any Labour people coming round - I don't think there is much point for them in this area."

Asylum seekers

Chris Golding, 24, has been visited by Labour canvassers, but he is also planning to vote Conservative.

He didn't vote at the last election but the issue that has swayed him this time is asylum and immigration, after the local council told his sister she "would probably take 10 years to get a flat because they have got to house asylum seekers".

"It is an issue that has to be addressed. If it doesn't get addressed, people like the BNP are going to get voted in," he says.

Nigel Lewis, 75, says: "I haven't made up my mind yet. I was brought up as a Labour supporter and I have nearly always voted Labour - and I have to say they have looked after us OAPs."

After chatting to a few more voters, it is not hard to see why Kensington and Chelsea is seen as a shoo-in for the Conservatives.

But the level of public interest in the election quickly dispels any lazy assumptions about voter apathy - or, perhaps, that is all about the marginals on 5 May.