Sir Menzies' first big test.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

It is not five minutes since the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, started his walkabout in Brent and he's already getting grief. Rocky Fernandez pushes past Sir Menzies' entourage to confront him over the Lib Dem councillors' poor attendance record.

Standing outside Ruhit's Indian restaurant in Willesden's High Road, north-west London, Mr Fernandez asks Sir Menzies whether he agrees these retrogrades - particularly the group leader, whom he claims has hardly ever turned up in the past year - should return their generous attendance allowance since they err ... rarely attend.

It soon transpires that Mr Fernandez, an independent parliamentary candidate in the last general election selected to stand as a Lib Dem, was swiftly deselected by his Lib Dem peers as a …