Lib Dem named “one to watch” by body chaired by his predecessor

Ping! An email arrives from Steve Gilbert, the uber-busy new MP for St Austell and Newquay.

He is “honoured” apparently to have been named “the ‘one to watch’ from the Lib Dem benches on the important local issue of housing by the influential National Housing Federation.”

He goes on:

“I see it as a reflection on the added challenges a community like ours faces when it comes to planning future developments and ensuring local provision in the housing stock.

“Most of the people I grew up with cannot afford to get onto the property ladder in Cornwall. It’s a sad reality that sees far too many local people move away to live and work.”

All true enough, but no space to mention the small – though no doubt unrelated - detail that the National Housing Federation is chaired by Matthew Taylor, former Lib Dem MP and Mr Gilbert’s predecessor in St Austell.

Which Westcountry Lib Dems are heading for ministerial office?

Some might say it's early days, but we are hurtling towards the endgame so why not play at fantasy reshuffle.

Rumours are the Lib Dems will get six seats in a Cameron Cabinet, and according to some notes photographed on Nick Clegg's lap, they'll have a minister in every department.

So, who from Cornwall, Devon and Somerset could get a red box? This is my take (with their current job - at least at the time of writing) including their chances as I see it.

And crucially, as far as I am aware Lord Ashdown has not ruled out taking a government job. Brown famously offered him Northern Ireland after becoming PM. Could Paddy achieve what he set out to do 13 years ago, and get a seat at the top table?

Certain
Schools spokesman and negotiator David Laws (Yeovil)

LikelyDefence spokesman Nick Harvey (North Devon)
Treasury spokesman Jeremy Browne (Taunton Deane)
Commons spokesman David Heath (Somerton and Frome)

Possible
Deputy chief whip Adrian Sanders (Torbay)
Communities spokesman Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall)
Andrew George (St Ives)
Paddy Ashdown???

Only just elected
Steve Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay)
Tessa Munt (Wells)

*Julia Goldsworthy would surely have been a shoe-in, had she not lost Camborne and Redruth by just 66 votes.

All eyes on the Westcountry this morning

This morning there seems to be a lot of media interest in the politics of the Westcountry.

The Guardian has a piece on Totnes, the seat vacated by Tory veteran Anthony Steen, in which the Conservative candidate GP Sarah Wollaston talks about "low moments" on the campaign trail:

"You wonder why you are giving up the nicest job in the world to do a job where it feels some days that everyone thinks you must be in it for the wrong reasons. I can't tell you the difference between knocking on someone's door as a GP and knocking on someone's door saying you'd like to be their MP. Sometimes you feel a wave of hostility."

The Daily Mail's brilliant Quentin Letts has been out and about in Exeter, with Ben Bradshaw:

"Strolling through Exeter with the Culture Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, is rather like going walkabout with the Queen. Passers-by wave. Cars toot. Grannies squeeze him as though testing shop plums."

And the BBC is in St Austell and Newquay all day. On Breakfast this morning, Tory Caroline Righton and Lib Dem Steve Gilbert had a bit of a ding dong on the issue of binge drinking.

Caroline saying she wanted to see more "bobbies on the beat" while appealing for more visitors looking straight down the camera, while Steve demanded she distance herself from comments made last year by a Tory councillor who tried to play down the impact of drunks on the town's reputation.

As the Western Morning News' election coverage says, the Westcountry Counts.