APPARENTLY we are all bored to tears with the general election campaign even though it is just a few days since it officially started.

If we are, it's more likely to be because politicians have been going on about Labour's second term since the day Mr Blair first became Prime Minister, making the past four years seem one long election campaign.

Let's hope the next four years (or could it please be five?) will be about keeping the country running smoothly with as little interference as possible in our daily lives, and less about holding on to power.

We suspect that would have been the case whoever was in power.

However, bored or not, there are four more weeks of this before we can cast our votes. And while it is perfectly possible for you, our readers, to switch off we hope you will not do that.

We intend by June 7 to ensure you at least have had the opportunity to know who the local candidates are and a bit about their personalities and backgrounds. We will treat all candidates fairly and we shall try and explain their party's policies.

We shall be following them round as they attend hustings, meet people and try to make themselves loved and their party's policies understood and respected.

We will report all this and we will tell you in advance when their meetings are, so you can go along and talk to the candidates yourselves and make up your own minds. Then it is up to you whether you vote or not.