The limited shelf-life of former ministers
A strong opposition is a vital part of democracy, but for a journalist it fulfils a second function. A strong opposition is a useful source of stories.
Holding the government to account is much more fun with access to the pick of an opposition MPs postbag... a constant drip of case examples of wrong doing and mismanagement.
But that drip has now firmly dried up.
All the keen young things are Conservative. Both (!) our Lib Dems are in there with them - Chris Huhne's a cabinet secretary for heaven's sake!
That leaves just two Labour MPs in the South of England, Alan Whitehead and John Denham in Southampton, to keep the executive in check.
So we're having to cast the net a bit wider. The Green Party candidate in New Forest East, Beverly Golden, is a lawyer and impressed us on the Politics Show this weekend.
Anther option is to go for "former" big hitters. Jim Braithwaite used to be chairman of the South East England Development Agency and had useful things to say about Conservative plans to axe the quango (though the blade seemed to have stopped half way through the neck in the end...).
And what's the shelf-life of these "former" MPs? Sarah McCarthy-Fry got a good run out on Radio Solent this week - she knows where the elephant traps are in the Treasury, having been a minister there - but as weeks go by the relevance of that knowledge decays.
There's Jim Knight in Dorset. He was one of the longest serving schools ministers, and has a lot to say on a flagship Conservative policy. But now that he's an un-elected voice his legitimacy in any discussion is halved, at least, and falling fast.
Should we make exceptions, for exceptional times? Search out new voices of protest, from academia? the unions? Or just accept that the coalition itself presents enough potential for internal protest that we simply have wait patiently for a new opposition to come along?
As ever, all suggestions welcome.
Welcome to the hustings! I'm Peter Henley, the BBC's political reporter in the south of England. From parish councils in Sussex, to European politics in Oxford, this is the blog for you. 
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