Campaign Diary: Day 6 - in which the candidate draws breath

The thing about unexpected by-elections is that you have to hit the ground running. A rudimentary campaign plan is agreed, and you set to work. But, with any hastily drawn up plan, things change as events unfold, especially if you need to contend with the fact that other people might have plans of their own. That includes your opponents.

And so, if you're sensible, you stop, recalibrate, and work out how best to use your time. Good preparation means that you can avoid wasting valuable time later, especially as, in a four week campaign, you really don't have time to spare. As the candidate, you set a lead too, so you need to preserve your energy and make sure that you pace yourself properly.

Tuesday evening, therefore, was set aside for research. Issues were already known, thanks mainly to the fact that Liberal Democrats have been active in the ward over more than two decades - you tend to pick things up simply by having a visible presence and doing the hard yards of casework, attendance at parish and other meetings and active participation in community life.

Therefore, the focus was on making sure that I attended events across the ward. May is Annual Parish Meeting time across Mid Suffolk, something which is taken pretty seriously, especially in those villages which don't have a fully constituted Parish Council (Baylham, Darmsden and Nettlestead). Annual Parish Meetings offer an opportunity for local people to question their local politicians, find out what community groups are up to and make their views known. They are attended by the very people most likely to vote in local elections - engaged, community-minded.

If you're a County Councillor, you can expect to have a very full diary, and even a District Councillor can expect to have to find time to attend as many as possible. My diary was filling up...