Some of you have noticed the lateness of the hour when these blogs tumble out from my mind. One commenter suggested whisky was involved but, as a career designated-driver, I must disappoint on this score. It was just the end of the day. There are many reasons for this, but one, right now, is that there is important stuff to be doing in the daytime and early evening. Those involved in politics will have realised that there are elections in a few days time, and they are rather important, so leaflets need to find their way to letterboxes, and doors need to be knocked – but you can’t do much of that at midnight, so blog away.

Wannabee PCCs are similarly distracted. A few might snatch the odd 20 minutes, no doubt at midnight, to craft a candidate statement, but many of any party can’t take on any big projects right now, including their own selections, what with the need to get them or their mates actually elected to the real deal as a Councillor or Mayor, and not just as a candidate. Except…… I have spied something different here in sunny Lancashire. Our old friend Chris Maughan has taken to Twitter to ask “Why-3 days b4crucial council elections-is a LabourLancsPCC candidate designing, printing&posting his leaflets to 5k members? #wrongpriorities“.

Well, that would seem like a good question, but who can he mean? Sadly, your Editor, not being a member of the Labour party, has not had the letter, so lacks the requisite evidence, except…

…there are 3 shortlisted candidates for Labour in Lancashire, and as both Ibrahim Master and Mark Atkinson have retweeted Maughan’s complaint, it rather shorten’s the odds on Clive Grunshaw being the guilty party.

If he has done as alleged, then he or someone else in the Labour movement must have burned a lot of midnight oil designing and printing leaflets, and stuffing the five thousand envelopes needed for Lancashire Labour’s membership, and spent at least a couple of grand in the process. Or maybe it was done in the daytime. Maybe everybody had all their leaflets delivered, all doors had been knocked on, and they really needed something to do.

It does raise the question of why he’s in such a rush. As we revealed yesterday, there’s about 4 weeks till the party ballot papers go out. Clive had been thought to be a shoe-in for the nomination, but actually having a postal ballot may have been a surprise, especially against 2 other candidates. As Clive has decided to focus on endorsements, and as they have turned out to be in, shall we say, a lesser league than some, does an early mailshot indicate nervousness that the lead may be slipping away? Or was he just trying to beat the rise in postage costs, without considering how it might look? He does like to cut down on postage costs.

Now some of you will be thinking – “Oh look, he’s having a go at Labour in his own area again”, and you’re right, I am. But please appreciate, I don’t get to choose what comes in front of me. I didn’t make Clive decide to spend less time saying ‘vote Labour’ and more time saying ‘vote Clive’. I just follow where the evidence leads – force of habit! Frankly, I might not pick Clive as the best candidate, but I’m moving toward thinking he might be the best Labour candidate for a Lancashire Conservative to oppose, so I am actually a tad reluctant to have a go.

I’d be happy, for the sake of variety and my readers, to consider complaints and spats elsewhere, (like why Nigel Goodyear has left Sussex Tories to go Independent – not for any reason we thought yesterday apparently, but still we await details of what it actually was). If they are any good, are linked to the election and not just gossip or smears, they might just get published, but for me to do that, you’re going to have to tell me about them. Editor@TopOfTheCops.com