I COULDN'T resist sharing this political offering with you, care of Sky News.I must admit that I'm a BBC man myself when it comes to following the election on the television - although on the night itself I'll have to make do with whatever channel is switched on at the Corn Exchange in Ipswich.

I COULDN'T resist sharing this political offering with you, care of Sky News.

I must admit that I'm a BBC man myself when it comes to following the election on the television - although on the night itself I'll have to make do with whatever channel is switched on at the Corn Exchange in Ipswich.

But I must admit that the pack of playing cards that has been sent to me by the Sky News team has gone down very well - and I love the characatures by their cartoonist Matt Buck.

He's been very fair - he's equally cruel to all the party leaders.

But I couldn't help wondering exactly why Robert Kilroy-Silk, as one of the Jokers, seems to be portrayed as some kind of manic rabbit.

Perhaps I'd be well advised to steer clear of analysing the reasons behind the characature and just enjoy it while I'm playing patience!

ALAN Duncan's prang might have been given the campaign a bit of interest in Ipswich, but in the grand scheme of things it hardly rates on the register of political blunders.

When it comes to looking foolish, Mr Duncan is an amateur when he's put up against his Conservative colleague Ed Matts.

Mr Matts is fighting to win the most marginal Labour-held seat in the country, South Dorset.

Not content with altering a photo of himself with Anne Widdecombe, he also sent round a publicity shot of himself with local sporting celebrities.

The only trouble, for him, was that they had posed with him as part of a charity event - and in fact they're Labour supporters!

Mr Matts clearly has a problem with cameras - rather like the prime minister's difficulty with the word tomorrow which he demonstrated when he sent a hand-written note to Chris Mole before his by-election four years ago.

I still remember looking hard at the letter thinking “There's something wrong with this,” before the problem struck me.

I HAD to feel for Charles Kennedy the other day. He returned to the political fray for the launch of his party manifesto and it was obvious he'd had fractured night's sleep thanks to Donald James.

And then when he fluffed some lines at the press conference he was given the full broadside from the national press.

I don't actually think his performance will have hurt him at all in the campaign as a whole - I'm sure most voters are more sympathetic to a new father adjusting to life with his first baby than most journalists are!