A scorcher in Cumbria.

IT was a sweltering day up here yesterday and Paul Stafford and I must have sweated off quite a bit of excess weight as we pounded the pavements in my ward of Moss Bay.

It's all finished there now so it will provide the focus of my results prediction this morning.

In the Times & Star yesterday, sitting Labour councillor Barbara Cannon said that from her campaigning she believed that voters in Moss Bay accepted that it wasn't local Labour representatives who were at fault over the expenses scandal.

She could be right but there was still a lot of hostility for Labour from the people I met.

We were challenged by "You better not be Labour" on numerous occasions as we walked up the garden path and on the whole, people were pleased when we said we were from the British National Party.

In the past three weeks there has been a dozen enquiries from people in the ward about the Party and there are BNP posters up in windows in both Salterbeck and Moss Bay, the two centres of population that make up the ward.

Yesterday, I even had a call from a lady who had just received my candidate card and wanted me to sort out a problem for her in an ongoing dispute with the council.

Labour have put out two leaflets, both full colour and glossy, and the Independent has put out one leaflet. I haven't seen anything from the other two parties.

We have delivered newspapers to the postal voters and our candidate's profile to all voters.

So what of my chances?

Maybe I'm being a little optimistic, but I think a second is on the cards, hopefully finishing just a whisker in front of the Independent candidate.

I would be happy with this sort of result.

Cumbria County Council
Moss Bay Electoral Division
Barbara Cannon (Labour) 48%
Martin Wingfield (British National Party) 17%
John Bracken (Independent) 16%
Judy Prest (Conservative) 12%
Ian Francis (Liberal Democrat) 7%

Campaigning in Maryport East this morning, that's Tina's ward and then Maryport West on Sunday, before finishing off with a big push in Workington concentrating on Moor Close and St John's wards on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I took one look at the headline's of this morning's newspapers and then clicked off the link. The Times can no longer be considered a newspaper of record after the drivel of the past few days. It's been as bad as The Mirror this week with its anti-BNP smear stories.

If you want to read the stories behind the anti-BNP headlines, then click here.

To finish on a positive note, the latest opinion poll has us on 5% (up 3% from last week). Five years ago we were never mentioned in the polls yet still attracted a 5% vote share, so on that form line we could, in reality, be up around the 10% mark.