Nargis Khan Heads North

Nargis and Julian hang loose

I don't normally express pleasure at my fellow Councillors deserting the ship, but when they do so in order to develop their Party careers I can only be gracious and wish them the best of luck. Especially so if they are virulently anti-LibDem like me. I previously unveiled Councillor Nargis Khan's desire to become Britain's first Muslim woman MP, all the more achievable after she was appointed to The Commission for Making Terrapins Just Like Us. And last month she announced her nomination for selection as Labour candidate for LibDem held Manchester Withington.

It's been a bit of a struggle for "Sporty" Khan to reinvent herself as the "local candidate". First of all she had to find the place - a task at which she was, apparently, not altogether successful. Still... Bury... Bolton... Burnage... they're all Yorkshire towns aren't they?

At least, thank Allah, she doesn't have to put on a working-class accent. After all, Withington is a relatively posh, upmarket part of Mancunia, well away from Moss Side, Rusholme and the other peasant- ridden areas of inner urban decay. Withington Girls' School is located there, Manchester Grammar School is close by and the area has turned out such working class heroes as Sir Ben Kingsley, Judith Chalmers, Robert Powell and Michael Atherton. So no fear that she'll be caught out by any trick questions at the hustings, such as "'Ere luv, do yer fancy sum 'ot pot and Eccles cakes, then?"

That's a very good job, because as I listened to her on BBC Radio 5 Live this morning extolling the virtues of political grassroots work in the local community I was somewhat discomfited by the way her accent comes across on the airwaves. In the aftermath of Shilpa Shetty's comment to Jade Goody I'm certainly not accusing Nargis of having taken elocution lessons, but she sounded a lot more Roedean and Lucie Clayton than Manchester Academy.