David Bowley, Independent candidate in Leicester West

There was an Independent candidate in the Leicester West constituency who is best described as colourful. Over to the Leicester Mercury:

“I’ve slept with hundreds of women. Hundreds. And thousands of men,” muses the man in the “Pure Magic” Leicester City hat, off-white rosette, camouflage shorts and blue Gola trainers.

“Everyone is bisexual to a degree,” says the 52-year-old, arching an eyebrow. “You might have a dabble if someone was willing.”

A lot more where that came from has been kept in the notebook.

Prospective MP David J Bowley – “that’s J for John with an H, the Northbridge Tavern, LE3 5AG, please get it right” – is getting the oxygen of publicity he craves.

Not your average customer then. But what really struck me was a later in the article:

His beloved mother, Edna – an independent councillor in Harborough – died a decade ago.

Because I knew Edna Bowley. She was on Harborough District Council when I was elected to it in 1986. In fact, she was one of a depressingly large number of people I knew in those days who have since died and had roads in the town named after them.

Edna Bowley had begun as a Conservative but fallen out with them at some point and become and Independent. I am afraid that the rise of the Liberals in Market Harborough finished her career as we won both seats in her ward in 1987 and beat her again when she tried her luck at a by-election in a different ward later the same year.

But I am sure she was a good mother. The last time I saw her I was out for a stroll and passed her walking her dog.

She told me to do my coat up.