Pity the Voters of Hampstead and Kilburn

It's not often that those of us in east London get the opportunity to extend the hand of sympathy to the terribly nice liberals of Hampstead. But you've got to feel sorry for the poor bastards at the forthcoming general election.

To begin with, local Labour MP Glenda Jackson has no select committee responsibilities, spoke in only one debate and received answers to only eight written questions in the last year. She also had to repay more than £8,000 in expenses she had wrongly claimed. As a result, shameless eco self-publicist Tamsin Omond, who has a habit of setting up and leading her own organisations rather than working with others, has apparently set up a political party called The Commons (membership and leader: Tamsin Omond) to stand against Jackson, who may be 'London's laziest MP' but at least has the distinction of voting against the Iraq war and the replacement of Trident - although admittedly she also managed to miss almost ever vote on the Climate Change Bill.

Does Jackson need another environmentalist to stand against her? Omond seems to be unaware that there is a Green Party candidate in Hampstead and Kilburn. The trouble is, that candidate is Beatrix Campbell, the journalist and Marxism Today alumni. Campbell gave credibility to the dangerous nonsense about Satanic abuse of children in Newcastle and was a supporter of Professor David Southall, the paediatrician whose so-called 'evidence' against Sally Clark led to her wrongful conviction. Southall was, of course, eventually struck off for gross professional misconduct. On the other hand, Campbell's views on the anti poll tax movement are truly hilarious, although those on state surveillance, which apparently signals "a wish to contribute to collective safety," are hardly from the Green Party playbook.

Then there's the Tory's Chris Philip. No hope of winning but in 2006, during his election campaign to become a councillor in Gospel Oak, he forgot to pay enough postage on campaign literature sent out to voters, which meant the unsuspecting who took the time to take their card from the Royal Mail down to the local sorting office had to pay £1.21 for a Conservative party mailshot. Nice.

Like I said. Things may be rubbish here in Newham, but they're nowhere near as screwed up as Hampstead.