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Life in a marginal: An MP writes...

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I am jealous of Mrs Tomsk, who has received a personal letter addressed to her personally from Our Man in Westminster. A bit of a hotch potch there, laudable though it all sounds. The real clincher comes with the enclosed "petition" (in reality a please help stuff envelopes kind of thing). Private VIP pop concerts?!?! I am OUTRAGED. Imagine supporting Ed-and-Gordon's Labour Candidate! Just imagine! Apart from anything else we'd be letting down those somehow strangely familiar people of south Manchester.

Life in a marginal: The Voice edition

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At last, a piece of propaganda that doesn't pretend to be anything other than propaganda. Respect to Labour Voice: I'm rating this 9/10 for page glossiness and 4/10 for peculiar photo opportunities. I like how a bill frozen in ice illustrates "Labour's plans to cut energy bills" - a hint that their 2013 energy bill pledge has not so much been overtaken by events as lapped by them. Still, waste not want not. That ice cube can't have come cheap. Inside it's maybe 6/10 for truthfulness. A fair enough attack on the government's handling of the NHS and another on the bedroom tax, of course omitting that Our Man in Westminster rebelled on both issues.

Life in a marginal: Our Man in Westminster edition

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When sorting through the latest batch of pizza menus and special offers for conservatories shoved through our letterbox each day, there's no greater joy than to find a copy of "South Manchester Life" nestled in the pile like a delicious glossy truffle. Regular readers of South Manchester Life will know that it tends to concentrate on the activities of our local Liberal Democrat MP, and last week's was no exception. There he is, cover star (twice), pictured above with the South Manchester Life team and guest editor Morrissey. Any resemblance between the South Manchester Life team and local Liberal Democrat activists is, of course, entirely coincidental. I'll spare you the details of what John Leech MP is doing for us in Parliament, but suffice to say South Manchester Life is very positive about them.

Life in a marginal: local NHS services edition

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The first in an occasional series of "weird things that get sent to you when you live in a marginal seat". Imagine my trepidation at receiving a letter with this marked on the envelope: That can only mean one thing: local NHS services are to be wiped from the face of the Earth, right? But no, the true nature of the information is far more surprising: Phew! Ed Miliband is personally going to save my insert local hospital name here! Through no less than a completely non-arbitrary set of random targets. Count me relieved. I don't mean to sound smug but to be personally sent a personal letter from the leader of the opposition addressed personally to me has to make me one seriously important voter.

Charlier than thou

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Amid the impressive and heart-warming displays of solidarity, there has sadly also been a lot of rubbish written about Charlie Hebdo and its cartoons on the English-speaking web over the past week (I've seen the beautiful term 'anglosplaining' used for this phenomenon). Rather than add to the pile, here are some links to pieces doing the rounds that I've found genuinely informative. Two of them are by actual French people. On the French satirical tradition: http://artgoldhammer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/tragedy-at-charlie-hebdo.html On where power really lies: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/08/charlie-hebdo-martin-rowson On American know-nothingery: http://67-tardis-street.tumblr.com/post/107589955860/dear-us-followers On not taking satirical cartoons at face value: http://www.quora.com/What-was-the-context-of-Charlie-Hebdos-cartoon-depicting-Boko-Haram-sex-slaves-as-welfare-queens On targetting racism in France: http://www.dailykos.co