It’s a great coup for a parliamentary candidate to get a shadow minister to visit them if they are not in a target seat, so very well done to Nick Hillman for persuading Caroline Spelman to support him while she was in Cambridge.

Caroline is Shadow Secretary for Communities and Local Government and she called in at an old NatWest bank which is now being used by beginspace, a scheme which supports business start-ups, social enterprises and community projects.

It has been run as a pilot project and it is hoped other branches will be launched around the country following its success. Its users are given opportunities to work collaboratively with others to develop their ideas, to form links with people who share similar goals. Caroline was very impressed – and this is certainly a great way of filling up the empty shops in our high streets.

Caroline and Nick met a couple of guys there, Robin Blandford and Arvind Shah, who are both designing very niche software and hope to become the latest Cambridge entrepreneurs as a result of this scheme, which provides free support and mentoring.

I would really like to see Nick win Cambridge. There is tremendous support for Conservatives in the city and Nick would be the perfect man to win us a Cambridge blue!

*Meanwhile, today’s Cambridge News reports that Tory canvasser Nick Bryars was squirted with tomato ketchup while canvassing in the city. He regards it as a badge of honour, saying:

"It was shocking but after I had calmed down I realised that every politician should suffer the occasional egg, bag of flour, but I think I can say that it is a first for ketchup. I have won my spurs."