There are towns in this country who pine for a foreign twin - Abingdon has three. This is impressive, when you consider that the most many twinless towns can hope for is a suicide pact with Bahgdad.

But then the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency is mainly a plump and sleek sort of place. It's also the sort of place that may need just a twitch upon the electoral thread to have the swingometer veering away from the Liberal Democrats and in the overall direction of the Tories, via the Independent candidate.

The smart money says Labour might as well have saved its deposit or spent it on a few lessons at the same school of boxing John Prescott attended. In Oxford West and Abingdon, the blow that will KO New Labour will not be long in coming, once the voting starts.

So much for punditry - what about the punters?

Nick Thomas is a 28-year-old former farm manager who changed his job seven months before the slaughter began and the funeral pyres started to darken the skies.

Foot and mouth has cost millions of pounds, but the cost in livelihoods, dreams and human lives can only be guessed at. It takes a lot for the Samaritans to advertise specifically on national television, with footage of weeping farmers and the obscene vistas of dead animals.

"I was very lucky," says Nick. "I got out just in time. I was still devastated by it all.

"You can't explain what it was like and you'll never know what it was like, unless you were there. The polticians could and should have done more - and done it more quickly.

"I will definitely be voting. To my mind, if you don't vote, you have no right to complain or moan."

Did he know who the outgoing local MP was? "No, I don't," he admits. "But my mind is made up who I'll be voting for this time. One hundred per cent.

"Put it like this - keeping the pound sterling is important to me," he said with a laugh. Here was a clue for the cadidates as clear as a cross on a ballot paper.

Alison Luckett, 28, a working mother with two children, wasn't as sure who she would be voting for, but she had made her mind up that she would be going to the polling station.

"I'll be voting and I think I know who I want to go for," she says. "I made my mind up after reading a leaflet from one of the candidates - I read what he had to say and it appealled to me. I tend to go for specific issues.

"In Abingdon, traffic is a big problem and I'm also interested in education and in any legislastion that affects working mothers."

Alison's husband Kevin, a lorry driver, will also vote.

"But I don't know who he'll go for," she says.

Carole Fairweather and her husband George, a horticulturalist, will both be out come polling day. They've been married for six years and together for 13.

"We argue about politics," George says with a smile, "but it's all good fun."

"We don't always agree politically, but we talk about our differences. I think the future of the NHS is a big issue in Abingdon, as it is everywhere in the country," says Carole.

George agrees. "The entire infrastructure of the NHS needs overhauling," he says. "I'd say the state of the NHS is the main cause for concern. Carole was in hospital recently and while you can't fault the doctors and nurses, the whole set-up needs work on it.

"I'd be prepared to pay more taxes for a better health service. There seems to me to be a lot of sports clubs whose members become injured and are then treated on the NHS - private insurance should cover that. And in hospital, those who can afford to pay a contribution towards their food should do so."

A swing to the Tories may or may not be in the offing, but political changes mean nothing to 73-year-old John Naylor.

"I don't vote for the party - I vote for the man," he says firmly. "And I'll be voting for Dr Harris. He's a great man. He's helped our Nuclear Testing Veterans Association a great deal.

"He can't do everything right but he's far and away the best of a bad lot. More should be done for old people and education and the NHS."

Some key local issues *High house prices leading to recruitment problems

*Pay increases for public services staff

*Policy on asylum

*The Oxford Transport Strategy in Oxford and new transport proposals for Abingdon

*How Oxford city centre trade is affected by parking proposals

*Plans to move Oxford's railway station to a new site

*The development of Oxford's Prison site and other key locations in the city centre

*Crime - the number of officers on the beat

*Education - the switch from three tiers to two tiers in Oxford city's schools