11/05/2017 Spotlight

Nominations for next month's general election closed

earlier this evening, and a clearer picture is now

emerging of which parties will be fielding candidates in the South

As our political reporter Tamsin Melville now reports -

one party which won't be appearing on the ballot paper is the Cornish

Approaching 70 years in business, back in its early days as a pressure

group signing up to Mebyon Kernow was apparently seen as the thing

to do, attracting names like Daphne du Maurier.

With a key message of a national assembly for Cornwall,

any electoral success has only been at local council level.

Since the 1970s the party for Cornwall has been fielding

But not this time, a decision based on the snap election,

It is extremely frustrating, we want to put our message out

there for the people of Cornwall but do it in a fair way

and when we are told when the election will be

and when it is suddenly moved forward three years with no notice,

it makes a nonsense of democracy for smaller parties.

This is the heart of Cornwall's clay country where Mebyon Kernow won

the popular vote at the local elections and returned two out

of its four Cornwall councillors, But at the general election it has

It fielded a full slate of six candidates that lost

What is the point in standing in the general election anyway?

Just because people don't vote for us at general elections does not

mean they do not like what we stand for, but this time it just wasn't

practical for us to put forward a really strong campaign in such

It is not just Mebyon Kernow stepping away, here in Cornwall UKIP

are only fielding one candidate and that is in Truro

and Falmouth where there was a Remain Conservative MP

and the Greens are only fielding in some places, and not in St Ives

where it is the most marginal seat in the battle between

What do voters think about having less choice at the ballot box?

It is good to have a strong opposition and the only way to get

the strong opposition is if it is one of the major parties

and I don't think that the major parties should lose votes

There are a lot of important issues at stake, so it is better just

It is a pity that some people had fought for the people

Mebyon Kernow's leader said it is not the end of the party

contesting seats in general elections and the aim

is to keep the other parties on their toes in the meantime.

Well, our political editor Martyn Oates joins me now.

A surprise to see Mebyon Kernow bowing out of this general

Yes, and as Tamsin said, in the last two elections they stood

in every seat in Cornwall, which they hadn't previously done,

so to go from six seats to zero is a bit of a shock

and it is probably a little-known fact that although,

as Tamsin has pointed out, their track record in general

elections isn't great, that MK members have actually

in the past been elected to Parliament and that is

because in the early days, and we saw some memorabilia there

from the start of the movement, it was a very broad-based

It was possible for instance to be a prominent Conservative or Liberal

politician and also a member of MK and people were.

Interesting to see other parties making the strategic withdrawals

Yes, this has emerged I think as one of the big stories

of the campaign so far and it began here in the South West.

Just to come back to MK, they have been clear that

in an outstanding candidates they are not thereby endorsing

The opposite is the case when it comes to UKIP and the Greens.

In UKIP's case they are deciding clearly quits strategically

they won't oppose conservative candidates whom they consider to be

sound enough Brexiteers, people who campaigned to leave

the EU during the referendum, campaigned last year and as some

of these people in UKIP have pointed out campaigned alongside some

of the people who might otherwise have been their opponents

They are of those standing against Conservatives who campaigned

The Greens are doing a very similar thing from the opposite side

They are targeting constituencies like St Ive's where the conservative

candidate won by a narrow margin and by not standing in the Greens

are hoping to reduce the otherwise fractured opposition to the Tory

to try to remove him or her at this election.

That's what the parties want the electorate to do.

Whether they will of course is the different question.

And what we do know, if we look at UKIP for instance,

that it is a very lazy and false assumption to say that the UKIP vote

always comes from the Tories and goes back to the Tories.

And in fact one Conservative candidate said he hopes that UKIP do

stand in his constituency, because if they don't he is worried

that those votes will go back to the Lib Dems.

A Bulgarian man accused of murdering his former partner

in Exeter says he accidentally searched online to find out how long

The body of Gergana Prodanova was found in a suitcase

Kostadin Kostov today denied playing any part in her death and said

the online search was due to a typing error.

A man accused of killing his ex-partner's two-year-old son has

told a court he loved him and was never violent towards him.

Joseph Eke from Weymouth denies murdering Harry House last May.

The toddler's face and body were covered in bruises,

and he suffered serious internal injuries and bleeding.

Now, many of us don't like injections or blood tests,

but for children it can be particularly daunting,

so a number of hospitals have adopted an idea to help make

Children with serious illnesses are being given the chance to be

scientists for a few hours to see how their blood is analysed.

Our health correspondent Jenny Walrond joined Idara who has

leukaemia as she explored the lab at Musgrove Park

Shall we take your blood tests down to the laboratory?

Blood tests and other invasive treatments are a fact of life

She has acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, but today

she is finding out what happened to her body doubles.

She is becoming a lab scientist for a few hours.

Every minute of every day, even Christmas Day or your birthday

there is someone in here working on your blood.

Why do you think we have less B positive than positive?

Because B positive is a rare blood group.

It is a benefit for our patients and also staff because it provides

an opportunity for them to engage with a patient when normally

the laboratory does not, even though they are directly

This visit has been organised to a charity called Harvey's Gang,

named after Harvey Buster Baldwin who had leukaemia and wanted to know

Sadly, Harvey died in 2014, but his curiosity has led

to children in other hospitals being allowed into labs.

They can see now why these tests need to be done.

We can ensure that they carry on with the treatment.

In here there are lots of cells and there are red

My best bit was interesting about the cells, that is

because it was really good, and my next interesting bit

And when she next has her blood taken, Idara knows

Great idea. Time for the weather with David. Good for the garden

today. Good evening. We have had some showers. More to come. It is

also good for the slugs. The rainfall will not be huge but dribs

and drabs. A little bit of water for the garden and the growers. Humid

and Misty tomorrow. A few showers around. Some could be quite heavy.

Low pressure in charge. From the south. Across so when win tonight

and much of tomorrow. Weather systems for a short time on Saturday

but more rain expected as a front approaches from the left. Coming

from the are perceiving there are a scattering of showers. They have

been gradually moving across the Channel and they are developing so

expect to see showers through the night. Mike misty conditions. Mild

compared to the last few nights. Temperatures should not fall much

below ten or 11 promised. Tomorrow is great, Misty, there will be show

is really from the start of today. But everyone seeing them. Gradually

the shower activity travels northwards and it gets drier and

perhaps even some late sunshine with temperatures between 13 and 16. On

Saturday it is a much brighter start. The risk of an early so but

most of the morning dry before we start to seek more cloud and more

persistent rain approach from the south-west. The weekend will have

some bright weather on both days. A few showers possible on Sunday. Mild

and Misty again by Monday. Thank you. That visitor must for now.

Breakfast news tomorrow morning. From the late team good night.

We want to see the economy work for everybody, not

Now the weather. , yes a humid dead. We have had

photographs of the Now, humid air is coming in hyped.

This cloud will be spreading northwards bringing rain and

showers.