Lib Dems panicked into cheap insults.

 The Lib Dems are clearly rattled by Labour's campaign and the selection of Paul Smith.  Paul has been described in their latest leaflet as "a practically unknown Labour candidate from the other side of the city".

Paul was a councillor for eleven years in Bristol taking many leading roles in the 1990s.  In 1998/9 the Lib Dem MP was his shadow chair.  For five years after that he wrote a weekly column in the Evening Post, he runs a national charity based in the constituency and was, until last year, Vice Chair of the local mental health NHS Trust.

The Lib Dems are also suggesting that their candidate is the most 'local' having lived in Bristol since staying here as an undergraduate.  Paul who lives on the boundary of the new constituency however is portrayed as being somehow living 'the other side of the City'.

The biography elsewhere on this site sets out Paul's background but to summarise, he was born and raised in Bristol. he has been actively involved in community activity in the City since the age of 15 - i.e. 28 years.

Paul commented, "This is really childish behaviour and not fitting for a Member of Parliament.  I welcome the start of a serious political debate".