You have to feel for Ribble Valley Labour Party today.
Not only do they never have a chance of winning in a safely Tory, relatively wealthy rural area where the Lib Dems are the main challenger to the MP Nigel Evans, but now their own candidate has sneakily defected to Kennedy’s lot on the day Blair called the election.
So, as well as the obvious embarassment of having chosen a turncoat, the handful of Labour party members in the Lancashire constituency, are going to have the joys of a selection process before they begin the painful task of trying to campaign for the governing party in a Tory seat.
I have a feeling that Marcus Johnstone, the Burnley councillor who stood in the last two elections, will have already put in a call to say “rule me out – please”.
Still, the odd thing about politics is that there will actually be a few people who want to be the Labour candidate in Ribble Valley and there may even be a contest for the chance to be trounced by a Tory called Nigel.