The biggest loser from the TV debates has of course been David Cameron. And doesn't it show.

I always predicted here that once there was any scrutiny of the Tories their house of cards would start to crumble. And boy has it done just that.

Now the Tories dismiss the debates as '6th form debating clubs' or Cameron says the problem was the questions were too 'subjecty'. You couldn't make it up. He was the one boasting he had been calling for these debates for years! Not so keen now is he.

You see the entire Tory strategy has been say as little of substance as possible. Create a marketing campaign which ignores the party and promotes the shiny Mr Cameron. But nobody has really warmed to Cameron. Certainly not the public and not even his own back bench MPs!

So now they are without a cause or a strategy and they look a little lost. What makes me even happier is that they have poured £millions down the drain. Where is the Ashcroft effect now?

So not content with have the right wing press now cheer leading for them at every opportunity the Tories are rattled enough to attack our own Loughborough Echo for not giving them enough space for their propaganda!

An orchestrated attack on the Echo is an unwelcome sight. First we hear the local Tories planning a dirty tricks Internet campaign locally and now this attempt at bullying. Where will it all stop?

The Loughborough Echo has its own unique style - duck eating fish front pages for example! You learnt to live with it and enjoy it for what it is. It is a great community champion - Loughborough in bloom for example and the 3M/Echo Community Awards are two great examples.

I have always accepted it will only ever cover about 5% of the work I do.

Last week I had Hilary Benn MP, David Miliband the Foreign Secretary meeting local residents and Gilly Merron MP visiting the new 400 job creating SportPark. The Echo decided not to cover the stories. But that is their choice. It is the editor who decides these things. I just shrug my shoulders and get on with the job - not wittering about not getting even more photos in the paper.

I would say I was shocked by the Tories attitudes and tactics - but sadly this is the new face of the local Tories. Many of the locals were not the same as the nasty party nationally but in the last couple of years this has changed and nastiness has crept in from outside. It is sad for us all.