I've been visiting the Lib Dem campaign in Dore and Totley today, where the candidate Cllr. Keith Hill is defending his seat against the Conservatives.

I think of all the candidates I've met so far in this election, Keith has impressed me the most - and the reason for that is that he genuinely enjoys listening to people. All politicians like to claim that they do this, but in this case it's no spin - we twice had to drag him away from conversations with his constituents that had run into twenty minutes or more - I think if we'd let him he'd still be out there now!

Canvassing aside, you can tell that he dislikes election time because it takes time away from helping his constituents - and his record in that respect is impressive. He was instrumental in setting up the Bradway Action group - he's chair of the South West Area Panel - and he puts in an impressive amount of individual casework. Only recently he ran a campaign to stop a Persimmon Homes development on land vacated by King Ecgbert's School - Persimmon promptly backed down and are reconsidering their plans. You can tell that Keith is respected locally - there's a reason why he is the only Lib Dem councillor in a ward that has returned two Tories.

I'm not kidding when I say that Dore and Totley is a nice place: there is street after street of smart detatched houses, charming little cottages, classy family pubs, flower shops, delicatessens - it's the very essence of England's Green and Pleasant Land, and not at all the kind of thing outsiders picture when the word Sheffield is mentioned. You would think that it would be a Tory heartland, and it's only a surprise (and a major credit to its discerning residents) that it has a Lib Dem councillor. Dore and Totley is home to the only two Tory councillors in Sheffield: Anne Smith and Michael Waters. (Anne Smith calls this her "team" - more like a mixed doubles partnership if you ask me!)

I'd have a lot of respect for the Tories if only they respected the views of their constituents and opposed the Labour council, but that's often far from what they do. I'm told time and again that "Tories vote with Labour in Sheffield", and bizarrely that's often the case: the Tories support Labour on their redistributive "favoured areas" policy (that actually takes money for road repairs, street lights, parks, cleaning etc. away from Dore and Totley - I'll cover this in a later post), and both Labour and the Tories want a council tax increase above the rate of inflation.

It's the great shame of Sheffield politics, really: Labour only needs to lose two councillors to lose control of the Council, and with such a slender majority we could really make some progress if the Tories were to join us in opposition - but the fact is they appear to resent our presence in the city so much that they would rather support Labour.