Ghost of a flea

Tory strategists are targeting voters dubbed 'Holby City Women' in their bid to win the next election. The new category of voter has been identified as being in her thirties or early forties. The nickname comes from BBC1 hospital drama Holby City, set in a fictional city in the South-West. She is likely to work in a responsible clinical or clerical job in the NHS like Faye Morton, the Holby City staff nurse played by Patsy Kensit.

One Conservative strategist said: 'She worries about the future of the Health Service, but also about the state of her children's schools, the fate of her ageing parents and the cost of childcare. We are not really talking about welloff doctors or senior managers. They are likely to back us anyway. It's the people doing important but less glamorous jobs earning around £30,000 who might have voted Labour in the past, but are now disaffected by the macho culture that surrounds Gordon Brown.'