The Tories are having one or two problems at the minute.

The Independent's front page headline this morning is: "New blow for Tories as lead slips in marginals."

From a national perspective, the non-dom tax row over billionaire Tory peer Lord Ashcroft is proving far more damaging than the "Gordon Brown is a bully" kerfuffle.

I am, however, heartened by the Tories' continuing support of local newspapers in their battle to stop councils competing unfairly with them.

Caroline Spelman, Shadow Communities and Local Government Spokesperson, was the guest at a Newspaper Society lunch yesterday and came out with some good stuff.

She condemned what she branded the ‘taxpayer-funded media’ and said councils should be as transparent as the BBC in what they spend on publicity.

She promised that a Conservative Government would tighten the Local Authority Publicity Code so that any council output was focused on council services and did not compete with the independent local media.

She noted that £430 million was spent on council publicity - twice the figure from 1997.

The Conservatives would require councils “to publish online exactly what they were spending on their publications” with a full breakdown of print costs, design and delivery, and editorial.

She also agreed that public notices, such as planning notices, must continue to appear in the independent free press.

Sounds good to me - all we need to know now is where the other parties stand.