Was this the biggest failure of AV supporters - not going for David Cameron from the outset of the campaign?

Have yes to AV supporters failed to be tough enough in takiing on their opponents? Will it prove to be a fundamental mistake?

Their opponents have certainly not been shy in coming forward in hard ball tactics - with personalised attacks on Nick Clegg for example. Some might say it is sheer negative "old politics".

Senior Tories have been willing to muck in from David Cameron downwards. When asked about attacks on Clegg, he has insisted that the no campaign is not his campaign. But Tories are present in its ranks.

Some say there was an understanding that Cameron would not play an active role in the no campaign. But never say never is a useful watchword.

With just weeks before the referendum, Vince Cable says politics in the North East will be more "fiercely contested" if voters back a switch to AV.

"I think the simple point in the North East is at the moment there will be a lot of safe seats, so they will be more fiercely contested because every MP will have to get half the vote.

"So I would think politics would be a bit livelier and more varied. People would have more choice."

I probably wasn't the only one walking up to SJP expecting to get a bit of a humping off a side that the professionals call a "wounded animal". On the other hand, at work I was quietly optimistic to some of my colleagues. By that I mean I thought we could keep it down to 2-1. This is what we've come to ladies and gentleman!

Nick Clegg may not be welcome in all parts of the country, even from some Liberal Democrats. Some see him as an electoral liability.

But there is still goodwill for the Deputy Prime Minister in Newcastle. And that's despite the battle between the Lib Dems fighting to keep control of the city council and Labour which is hoping to take back the flagship authority.

In Paris, a catwalk model trots in her silky cut-off dress down the runway, and in Banghazi, a father is loading his gun, the mother gathers the food while the children cellotape the windows. In Iraq, I sit on my desk and write. I find creative ways to avoid writing about my current life. I hide old blogs I had written and never posted. I wonder about the legalities, security, and the consequences of whistle-blowing. My words often came in the shape of an anagram; agglutinated morphemes, afraid of spelling out the truth.

A friend of mine told me that I have developed a habit of taking the absolute longest route between the start of my sentence and my actual point. They're right, and this blog is proof. I have to learn how to be honest in my writing all over again.

In time, I discovered that home is a time, not a place. A time that I longed to recapture during my stay in Iraq, but failed miserably. Social erosion quickly took over the few spots available for those who seek to contribute to Iraq.

Amidst my despair and choosing the right path, a group of extraordinary people showed me how to survive. People who enthusiastically - and against all odds - face their realities and fight for their future, though, not yet ready to confront their fear. My students are the people I continue to draw inspiration from. Young individuals who shared trust, love and life stories with me. A bond that no threats will ever break, we set out together on a journey. Perhaps not their first journey of this kind, but it was certainly my first. A journey that taught me things I never knew existed in me, and strength that I didn't know I had, facing people I only read about or cringed while watching them on TV.

Recently, my feelings have been accumulating in my throat. A feeling of revulsion, love and despair. Living in the storehouse of my most treasured childhood memories has become the reason I loathe it. Then I meet faces that remind me of me, only slightly younger, and about to go through similar journeys to mine. They too, share their unconditional love with me, and entrust me to keep it safe forever. A promise that could potentially finally break me free from the storehouse of memories. I examine their youthful faces and those relentless infectious smiles. I return them, taking more inspiration. More than the inspiration they believe I offer.

"We love you," they say. An overproduced sentence that I heard plenty over the course of my life. But here and now, this sentence touches my heart more than I ever imagined. "We miss you," they also say. But I have missed them all my life; even before meeting them. A connection without its existence, my trip to Iraq would have been an absolute squander.

Maybe my journey in Iraq is coming to an end soon, and I feel sad that I may not get to find out what will happen to many of my students as they get older, and lose touch. Nevertheless, I am thankful for what they taught me, for what they shared with me, for their patience in long lessons, and for their innocence. They are forever etched into my memory.

Thank you, for my most treasured memories.

MY girlfriend, Sarah, has seen me box loads of times, but I'd never seen her at work until we went to the cinema this week - and I was really impressed!

Sarah is a nurse at Sunderland's A&E department, and she's studying so she can work in the Los Angeles hospitals while we're out here.

But she got a bit of unexpected practice when we went to watch Russell Brand's latest film, Arthur, this week, in Downtown LA.

MY girlfriend, Sarah, has seen me box loads of times, but I'd never seen her at work until we went to the cinema this week - and I was really impressed!

Sarah is a nurse at Sunderland's A&E department, and she's studying so she can work in the Los Angeles hospitals while we're out here.

But she got a bit of unexpected practice when we went to watch Russell Brand's latest film, Arthur, this week, in Downtown LA.

MY girlfriend, Sarah, has seen me box loads of times, but I'd never seen her at work until we went to the cinema this week - and I was really impressed!

Sarah is a nurse at Sunderland's A&E department, and she's studying so she can work in the Los Angeles hospitals while we're out here.

But she got a bit of unexpected practice when we went to watch Russell Brand's latest film, Arthur, this week, in Downtown LA.

MY girlfriend, Sarah, has seen me box loads of times, but I'd never seen her at work until we went to the cinema this week - and I was really impressed!

Sarah is a nurse at Sunderland's A&E department, and she's studying so she can work in the Los Angeles hospitals while we're out here.

But she got a bit of unexpected practice when we went to watch Russell Brand's latest film, Arthur, this week, in Downtown LA.

A top American and NATO chief might have warned of "flickers" of an al-Qaeda presence among Libyan opposition fighters recently.

But UK Foreign Minister Alistair Burt seemed more equivocal when asked by Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy about what assessment made of any potential relationship between the armed opposition to the Libyan government and combatants who previously fought against coalition forces in Iraq.