NOT the best of times for Jack Straw. He had been in Luxembourg doing his day job as foreign secretary and was dozing on a train speeding back to Lancashire when the phone rang on Wednesday night.
"Ahem. Secretary of state, there's a little local difficulty with, erm, Lord Goldsmith's legal advice. . ." Contact lenses in place, he was on Newsnight within an hour, fending off the Paxman barbs.
Yesterday, back on the stump in Blackburn (majority to defend of 9249) , there is an air of unease. Security is tight.
The secretary of state is transported in a black-glassed people carrier, guided by grim-faced security guards with wires coming out of their ears and whispering discreetly into their sleeves.
The fear is that a hustings with all the three main candidates will be hijacked by Muslim extremists. At one point, three young bearded Asian men trundle down the corridor and are stopped.
"They just wanted to talk to Uncle Jack, " mused a guard, who sent them on their way.
The hustings itself covers Iraq - naturally - ID cards and crime. The teenage audience is polite and very attentive. No eggs, not even a heckle is raised.
One student observed: "It was rubbish, but interesting rubbish."Another, asked who he would vote for of the three, barked: "None of them. I'm voting Green."
After yet more media interviews defending the government on Iraq - "Wasn't this supposed to be a canvassing day?" complained one aide - Mr Straw made his way to an old people's home to press the flesh at the other end of the age spectrum.
Iraq was a world away from here, everyone was in a friendly, chirpy mood. There was a palpable air of excitement among some of the residents as the Labour candidate sat down for a cup of tea and a cupcake, set on gingham tablecloths.
At one table, the comparatively young hopeful - he's 58 - was gently berated about the local number 19 bus and its lack of a convenient route for the residents.
"Right, number 19, " said the secretary of state, as he wrote it down in his little black book. "I can only do something if you vote for me, " he insisted.
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