Tory leader's battlebus hits town

Why did local Tories decide that Worthing Aquarena was the place to be on Tuesday morning?

It was all designed to hit back at what the Tories say are Lib Dems' claims that a new Conservative council would close the Aquarena.

Along Brighton Road came the rather impressive Tory battlebus. It came to rest a decent enough distance away to allow local Tory agent Tom Wye and friends to arrange a spontaneous three big cheers for Howard as he perambulated past the bushes and up on to the steps.

I must say that Major Tom seemed in particularly fine voice, considering that he had spent a good part of the early morning, from 7.15am, blowing up blue balloons.

Entrance over, Mr Howard told the crowd mostly what they wanted to hear a week before an election.

During a press session afterwards, Mr Howard was saving his main comments on Europe for a keynote speech in Bournemouth that afternoon. A stroke of luck for Worthing, then.

But when asked by the Herald if he considered the UK Independence Party a particular Euro electoral threat to the Tories in Worthing and West Sussex, Mr Howard emphasised the Tories' policies of not advocating the extremes of pulling out of Europe altogether, or giving yet more power to Brussels to create a federal European state.

"We want to say in the EU," he said, "but too much is decided in Brussels and some issues should come back to be decided in Britain."

Seagulls fans would have liked him to reply more positively to a question on whether John Prescott should give the gohead for a new Brighton and Hove Albion stadium at Falmer.

"Yes, I know that Brighton have won promotion to Division One, and congratulations to them," he enthused.

But did he back the Falmer site?

"Albion deserve a new stadium," he went on, "but it's not for me to say where a new stadium should go."