• THE INSIDER is strictly neutral about who he thinks you should vote for. But I don’t hold much hope for the much-promised UKIP march in Oxfordshire based on its current organisational abilities.

Every election the Oxford Mail dedicates many pages to allow candidates to speak directly to voters to explain who they are and what they stand for.

You’d think it was an opportunity any sensible candidate and party would grasp and they usually do.

But even though UKIP has been contacted numerous times since March 4, fewer than half of its candidates have bothered to supply any information for you, the voter.

If it doesn’t make its predicted surge this year, the party can hardly claim it has not been given a fair hearing.

  • ELECTION fever has also gripped Abingdon, where Home Secretary Theresa May joined Oxford West and Abingdon MP Nicola Blackwood for some doorstepping.

The top Tory had her picture taken with Ms Blackwood in every shop, but the media was conspicuous in its absence during the high-profile visit – because no-one was invited.

Given that political parties usually fall over themselves to get a bit of coverage when a supposed big-hitter leaves the Westminster bubble to meet the folk in the shires, we wonder why former Oxfordshire school pupil Ms May was kept away from the Press?

  • POLITICIANS often dig the dirt on each other. Now former Green city councillor Nuala Young is raffling a year’s supply of horse manure to raise funds for Oxfordshire Green Party.

Twelve sacks of well-rotted dung could be delivered free of charge to your garden or allotment up to five miles from the centre of Oxford, with a draw taking place on April 27 and tickets selling for a pound each.

Perhaps some sacks should be delivered to Downing Street’s rose garden?

  • HERE’S an oddity of coincidence you may feel.Prisoner Dean Cambage legged it from HMP Spring Hill near Bicester on April 7 yet police did not release this fact through the media to the public. He remained at large.

Nine days later police made an appeal for help and – yep, you guessed it – he’s arrested on the same day.