Ask any political activist what being a local candidate means and you will invariably get the response, "local is wherever your Lib Dem candidate lives!"

It is true that the Lib Dems are very inconsistent on the point - as we saw in North Norfolk during the county council elections last week.

It is standard Lib Dem practice to put out a negative leaflet during the last week of the campaign and those of us who have fought Lib Dems before tend to run a sweepstake on what the negative issue might be.  Invariably, if the Conservative lives further away than the Lib Dem, you can bet your life that will be the issue.

Take Melton Constable in the last county council election in 2005.  The Lib Dems won the division from the Conservatives by one vote having made a big thing of the fact that Russell Wright did not live in the division.  This time, with their own candidate living further away than Russell (and their previous "local" councillor having been deselected for being useless despite living locally) they did not think it necessary to mention the issue.

Then there was Wells this time around.  Because the Conservative candidate lived outside the division and their candidate did not, suddenly being local mattered again.  It worked for them this time, although it remains to be seen whether the new Lib Dem councillor for the area will be any better than their previous one in Melton Constable.

But hold on, how do we reconcile all of this with what happened in Cromer?  The Conservative candidate in Cromer was Hillary Thompson.  Landlady of a pub - in Cromer, Chairwoman of the Women's Section of the Royal British Legion - Cromer Branch, a lay preacher - in Cromer and the Mayor - of Cromer.  Now applying the Lib Dem logic in Wells and Melton Constable, they ought to have stood aside immediately and declared Hilary the best choice for the town.  But instead they fielded Councillor Penny Bevan-Jones - a District Councillor for Sheringham.  And where does Cllr Bevan-Jones live - Sheringham.  Despite all this they still had the cheek to claim in their last leaflet that it was a choice between the local choice and the Conservative!  Fortunately, the good people of Cromer ignored their negative spin and voted for Hilary.

So does it matter where a candidate lives?  The answer, as far as the Lib Dems are concerned, seems to be that it depends on whether the other candidates live further away than theirs or not.  If they do, it matters.  If they do not, it does not (or they will claim to be the local choice anyway).  Of course, all of this ignores the fact that the Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk lives in Norwich South - half a very large county away.

So does it matter or not?  Personally, I would not want to represent an area if I did not live there - it is important to me that I am using the same GP surgery and dentist, that I am catching the same trains and living with the same problems as those who I aspire to represent.  I accept, however, that this is a personal view and I do not seek to suggest that you cannot represent an area well if you do not live there.  I only wish the Lib Dems would make up their mind whether it matters or not.  At the moment their approach smacks of political opportunism and spin and we simply do not need that in politics at the moment. 

This is just a short post to thank everyone in North Norfolk who voted Conservative and helped to increase the number of Conservatives on the County Council by 13.  In North Norfolk we won both the Cromer and Melton Constable Divisions from the Lib Dems and saw off a strong UKIP challenge in Holt to retain that division as well.  We also held the Hoveton and Stalham Division.

Thank you to everyone who voted Conservative.

The local and European elections today are some of the most important we have ever faced.  Not only do we have a chance to make sure that we elect even more hard working and dedicated Conservative Councillors with a track record of delivering higher quality and better value services, but we also have an opportunity to send Gordon Brown a very clear message that we will not wait any longer for a general election.

Many of us are rightly angry about the MPs expenses scandal, but we must put aside our anger for one day and resist the temptation to either note vote or vote for a minor party for three reasons:

• The expenses scandal has affected all parties, including UKIP and what we must do today is vote for the party that has shown that is has the strength and leadership to deal with the problem and clean up British politics.  David Cameron has shown real leadership over the issue in marked contrast to Gordon Brown who initially tried to suppress publication of MPs expenses and when that failed tried to defend his colleagues who had clearly behaved in an unacceptable way.  A vote for anything other than the Conservatives today is a vote for the status quo

• Both Labour and the Lib Dems have let us down badly over Europe.  Both parties promised us a referendum before the European Constitution was ratified and yet they have conspired to deny us that same referendum.  The Conservatives are the only party who will make sure that Britain gets a referendum on the Constitution before it is ratified - and who will campaign for a no vote in that referendum. 

• There are thousands of hardworking and dedicated county councillors who are standing for election today, councillors who give up their time to work for their communities voluntarily and who do not deserve to be punished for the behaviour of some MPs. 

Please vote Conservative today and vote for change.

Politicians and those in the media are prone to over dramatising events, but it would be hard to do that with the ongoing scandal into the abuse by some MPs of their expenses.  For once it is no exaggeration to say that Britain will never be the same again and nor should it.

This scandal has rocked our political system to its very core, but the truth is that it is the final nail in the coffin for a system that has been losing public trust for many years.  We have all seen the falling turnout in elections and anyone who has knocked on doors for a political party will know that apathy is an increasingly frequent response.

The answer to the immediate crisis is twofold; the punishment of those who have abused the system - including criminal prosecutions where appropriate and wholesale reform of the expenses system.  David Cameron has shown strong leadership on this issue, moving swiftly against those who have done wrong and setting out a number of measures to reform the system.  His strength of character contrasted favourably with the weakness of Gordon Brown, who initially tried to block the publication of expenses and when that failed, was at best reluctant to take action against those Labour MPs who have done wrong.

But the implications of the last few weeks will be with us long after the careers of the offending MPs have come to a shameful end.  The real legacy will, I hope, be major reform of the way that Parliament works.  The reduction in the power of the party whips, the strengthening of Parliament against Government and greater transparency and openness.  David Cameron's key note article very clearly set out the completely new direction that he wants to take British politics.

For too long the debate about constitutional reform has been hijacked by those vested interests who are obsessed with proportional representation and a written constitution.  Neither of these measures will make the real changes that are needed if we are to begin to rebuild public trust in politics.  In the case of PR it will actually be a step backwards as it will reduce the importance of the ballot box and increase the power of politicians making murky deals behind closed doors.

The coming months will be rightly difficult for politicians and many careers will be brought to an early end.  What we need to make sure though is that something positive comes out of this mess and the beginning of a new relationship between the British people and their politicians would be a good start. 

At the end of a great first day of Conservative Spring Forum here in Cheltenham, the message is very clear - whilst the economic situation is tough, a future Conservative Government will not be throw of its course of delivering real improvements in our vital public services.

At the heart of today's business were speeches by Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley and Shadow Education Secretary, Michael Gove.  Andrew made it clear that the NHS remains the Conservative Party's number one priority and that it would be protected from the need to get public spending under control in order to begin to pay back the huge amount of debt that Gordon Brown has run up.

On education, Michael promised to drive up standards in schools by giving teachers back control of their classrooms and allowing them to teach to the specific needs of their pupils rather than to the targets of their political masters.  He also promised a major expansion of the academies programme, giving more schools the freedom and independence to drive up achievement.  Most importantly, he pledged to end Labour's programme of closures of our fantastic special needs schools.

We have some tough choices ahead of us to restore our economic prosperity, but what we made clear today is that a future Conservative Government will not sacrifice our health or our future to do it.

Now off to dinner and to hear Boris....

Occasionally I get told on the doorstep that the Conservatives are not attacking Gordon Brown hard enough. 

For all those of you out there who are concerned that we are not telling it like it is, check out this video of Conservative MEP, Daniel Hannan, telling the PM what he thinks: