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.

Let's hope the next four years or could it please be five which is the time for which governments are actually elected will be about keeping the country running smoothly with as little government interference as possible in our daily lives, and less about holding on to power.

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

Another thing we would welcome after June 7 is less of the tasteless hype, the heavenly choirs, the parading of wives, the false bonhommie, the denigration of other parties and the spin that we are given in place of serious debate.

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 the television, cancel the newspapers, close the curtains and curl up with a few good books for the intervening period 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 what they look like, and a bit about their personalities and backgrounds. We will treat all the candidates fairly and we shall try and explain their party 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 make up your own minds. Then it is up to you whether you vote or not.