On the Council campaign trail in Edinburgh

Yesterday, I went off into Edinburgh to help the awesome North, East and Leith local party with their campaign for the Council elections.

The City of Edinburgh Council has been ably led by Lib Dem Cllr Jenny Dawe since 2007. They inherited a right financial mess from Labour and have transformed the city in the past 4 and a half years, making communities safer, reducing homelessness, building new council houses, improving social care and getting the city's finances on a stable footing. There is a lot to be proud of in their record. The Lib Dems are the only party to have shown consistent leadership on the issue of the trams.

I went in yesterday to help Tim Wight, our feisty candidate for Forth ward. It was the first time I'd been out delivering leaflets since the Glenrothes by-election in 2008. Illness has kept me on indoor duties since then. I was absolutely shattered at the end of the day but it was well worth it. I ended up very close to where I worked as a nanny way back in 1987 when I'd first moved to Edinburgh to live with Bob.

I spent a lot of time during the Scottish elections working with the North and Leithers, who count among their number the formidable Kevin Lang and the irrepressible Alex Cole-Hamilton so it was good to be back with them. I can highly recommend their campaign days for the standard of the catering alone. It's kind of useful having a culinary god as a campaign manager. We feasted on mellow, silky, aromatically spiced lentil soup and had a wonderful fruit cake with a delicious depth of flavour for afterwards - and there was plenty sweet and flavoursome tablet to keep us going if we flagged.

There was plenty good banter to be had as well.

So, I shall definitely be back there as well. There's lots of work to do between now and May - and we need to be out there, proud and confident, saying it.