As any activist knows, Bank Holiday Mondays during an election campaign are not given to us for fun days out but for extra deliveries and canvassing. In most years, though not all, we get the use of the Easter Bank Holiday Monday as well as the May Bank Holiday during the short campaign.

The big yellow battlebus, with Nick Clegg and media on board, continues its journey around the target seats. This morning it will be stopping in Surbiton, home of Ed Davey and his team (including me). There’s a large local party, a popular incumbent and experienced campaigners, but no-one is complacent; this area has  been fiercely contested in local and general elections by Lib Dems and Conservatives for as long as I can remember. The presence of the emerging minority parties (not to mention the Monster Raving Loony) skew any predictions based on past performance. I’m embarrassed to have to report that I won’t be there to greet the entourage having committed myself to family things long before we knew that date. I promise, really promise, to keep 4th May free.

From Surbiton the bus will be shooting down the M4 to Bath to meet retiring MP Don Foster and the PPC Steve Bradley. Nick will use the occasion to launch the Liberal Democrat’s local manifesto for Bath and North East Somerset.

Meanwhile, in Scotland Willie Rennie and Michael Moore will be out and about in Asda in Galashiels. Why Asda? Could they, by any chance, want to use shopping baskets to illustrate the impact of the Lib Dem income tax cuts on the average family?

* Mary Reid is a contributing editor on Lib Dem Voice. She was a councillor in Kingston upon Thames, where she is still very active with the local party, and is the Hon President of Kingston Lib Dems.