Andy McSmith's Election Diary: Ms Bennett’s gentleman suitor

The TV debates have propelled Natalie Bennett into the public eye as never before (Getty Images)

The time has long passed when the spouse or partner of a well-known politician could hope to stay out of the public eye. The debates have propelled the Greens’ leader Natalie Bennett into the public eye as never before. Does this make her partner, Jim Jepps, fair game?

The Sunday Mirror thought so, and did a long exposé about his strange online ramblings, which reveal – pre-2011 – provocative ideas about sex with the young and very young. He is reported to be a former member of the Socialist Workers Party who joined the Green Party, but has since left.

When the Greens launched their youth manifesto Bennett left the event early, so it fell to her deputy, Amelia Womack, to field questions about Mr Jepps. She emphasised that he is not a Green Party member, and his views are not party policy, but did not sound comfortable as she continued: “But obviously … obviously there is a lot of, kind of … He hasn’t put himself in the public profile, it is Natalie who has put herself into the public eye and so it is … basically it must be really hard to have her public life, sorry her private life, brought into the public like this.”

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“No one in their right mind would enter into a contract with a bunch of voracious weevils to protect the lovely old timbers in the tower of the local church. Would they?”

Boris Johnson on why the SNP should be kept out of the Westminster government.

Green Goddess?

Meanwhile the Radio Times asked Bennett what she would do if she had a time machine. She said she would travel to the early 17th century to meet a certain Mary Frith. Otherwise known as Moll Cutpurse, or the Roaring Girl, Frith was renowned as an entertainer, exhibitionist and criminal. She set off a riot when, for a bet, she rode from Charing Cross to Shoreditch dressed as a man, playing a trumpet.

Though street robbery was her crime of choice, she also held up General Fairfax on Hounslow Heath, shot him in the arm, and killed two of his servants’ horses to make her getaway. Caught and sentenced to be hanged, she paid a £2,000 bribe to cheat the gallows. OK, but she was also said to have been the first woman ever seen to smoke – hardly a model Green.

Respectable, eh?

A colleague has received this circular from a local estate agent: “Our corporate and relocation services department has been selected by Ipsa [Parliament’s expenses watchdog] to find homes for London-based MPs following the general election… They will be good quality, respectable tenants and, importantly, guaranteed by the Government. In many cases they will also be seeking very long-term tenancies. So if you’re considering renting now or in the future, please feel free to contact me.”

Waving the hours away

Harjinder Singh, Ukip candidate in Birmingham Perry Barr, has chosen an unusual form of campaigning. He has stood for 13 hours a day, from 7am to 8pm, at the junction of the A34 and A4041, waving at motorists. He has waved so much that he strained a muscle and has an arm in a sling – but he is still waving, with the other arm.

I loved that short poem by Stevie Smith about the “poor chap” who was “not waving but drowning”.

Quote of the Weekend

“I think it’s really important that you have a balance – you are not just about politics, but you actually interact with people.”

Liam Marshall-Ascough, Tory candidate for Stoke-on-Trent Central, explains why a photo of him licking a female friend’s breast, taken on a night out seven years ago, shows he is suited to politics.

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