When I asked why, she replied: "I remembered that you were Labour."

Only a fortnight earlier, I was told by a Conservative councillor who'd known me for years that I was a Liberal Democrat, even though I disagree strongly with the basic tenet of their faith, proportional representation.

Labour politicians in the past were convinced that I was a Conservative, especially in the days when they thought anyone who worked for the capitalist Press was automatically an enemy. Now many of them have embraced capitalism themselves.

Ihave to point out to these politicians that I support none of their parties, an important message to impart, especially in the next four weeks after nominations close at noon today for the local council contests in May.

What's more, for the benefit of those who will be scouring the paper totting up the column inches to see whether we have favoured one party or the other, I don't know the politics, if any, of the editor, deputy editor or anyone else who might happen to chop about my copy after it has left my fecund computer.

The reason is that it doesn't matter. Whether or not we have a secret hankering for Sinn Fein or the Scottish Nationalists, we are all newsmen and women first and anything else second, a state of affairs not always appreciated by politicians who assume that we must support one side or the other.

There are journalists, like the Conservative Boris Johnson and the strict Socialist Paul Foot, who have made it clear right from the start where they stand and have made a career out of political polemic. Some, such as Paul Johnson, have even managed to go from one extreme to the other while barely pausing to change a typewriter ribbon.

And there were times when most provincial papers, along with many nationals, were basically conservative, often with a small c but sometimes with a large one. Not any more.

IF THE Argus declared itself for one party it would automatically upset more than half its readers who don't care for that lot, a highly unwise move.

Ihave voted in every local, national and European election since first being able to 35 years ago. It is a precious right to me and in the various places where I've lived results have been sometimes close enough to make me feel my cross could have made a difference.

But I have sprayed my vote liberally (note the small L) around various parties big and small. Firstly, I look at the candidates and wonder who would do the most for local people with problems. Then I look at the parties, to consider which would do the best job running the council or the country.

As a reporter, I have a duty (although not a legal one) to try and ensure a reasonable balance between the parties and candidates, while remembering that there's far too many to give columns to them all. But news comes first and the politicians providing most of it get the most space.

It doesn't matter what I or any other journalist thinks of the politicians. We just report what they're up to.

And the best advice I can give to all of them is that while they should never overestimate the knowledge of the voters, they should never underestimate their intelligence.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.