Caroline's magic bus

Fasten your seat belts for a series of reports on how general election campaign funds were spent in Cornwall. For example, according to Caroline Righton's declaration of expenses, her campaign bus cost just £3.71 per day. At that price we should all have one.

Caroline's agent, Bob Davidson, tells me that this £3.71 was just the fixed cost of running the vehicle at 40 pence/mile from 2008 and that once the official "long campaign" period kicked in, the declared costs increased to more like £20 per day. Still remarkably cheap, given the distances travelled. And perhaps just as well - the £40,968.07 she spent in her unsuccessful campaign to become the Conservative MP for St Austell & Newquay was just £1,663.57 within the statutory limit.

Caroline's 18,877 votes cost £2.17 each. Compare with Labour's Michael Sparling in the neighbouring South East Cornwall constituency: Michael claims to have spent nothing at all. Not a penny. His return declares a big fat zero. I know Labour wasn't trying very hard in some parts of Cornwall but that really takes "not trying" to a whole new level. His 3,507 votes therefore look remarkably good value.

A notebook full of data, and more constituencies to examine. But this looks like it was time well spent. More soon.