IT'S early days but the Diary can name the most versatile man standing in the General Election.

Step forward Richard Jackson, one time soldier, fish and chip shop owner and hotelier turned taxi driver and hypnotherapist. Richard is the UK Independence Party candidate for York. We cannot think of another skill more useful to a politician than hypnotism - so does he plan to mesmerise voters into backing him at the ballot box?

Just a few seconds looking into the eyes of every resident on their doorstep, and all York could be under his spell...

"I haven't got any special powers. Anybody can be a hypnotist," he told the Diary. "Unfortunately, if you don't want to be hypnotised you can't be hypnotised. But if anybody would like to be hypnotised I should be happy to do it..."

Warming to the idea, he added: "There's a possibility I could hypnotise people into delivering leaflets for me." So, if you see armies of glassy-eyed folk robotically pushing propaganda through letterboxes, don't assume they are Labour activists.*

Richard developed his interest in hypnotherapy while running Holgate Caf and later a hotel. But burgeoning bureaucracy led him to give up being a small businessman and become a cabbie with the Blue Circle taxi firm. It also prompted his support for UKIP.

He's switching to night driving so he can go on the stump during the day. The weekend sees the launch of his "battle bus" - his six-seater Citroen people carrier pulling a trailer adorned with the slogan "Vote Jackson".

Richard believes that the MP for York should put the city before their party. But does he try to convert fares to the UKIP cause?

"You don't mix the two. If people ask me, I talk to them about it.

"But I don't press my views on them - especially at 11 o'clock on a Friday night if they have come out of the pub. I go along with anything they say at that time of night."

HERE'S an assessment of the York political landscape from a contributor to politicalbetting.com.

"I think the Tories will recover slightly from their lows in City of York, where I live," writes Christi.

"The Lib Dems have been disastrous on the council... the Labour MP is fairly boring, if that's the right term... I know the Tories hold no council seats here but I think they will remain in second place and dent Hugh Bailey's sic majority. The local Tory PPC, Clive Booth, is very active and often in the local paper." No doubt we'll be seeing more of them all soon. Hurrah!

THE Diary must throw our considerable support behind the crusade against car criminals by York police.

But where do they get their names from? "Operation Cobra" sounds like a plot by undercover CIA operatives to assassinate a Central American despot, rather than the local constabulary's crackdown on car thieves.

Presumably the title is designed to suggest the swift and deadly strike of the venomous snake. If so, we humbly suggest another creature as being more suitable. This is the animal revealed by scientists in February to be the fastest and most accurate predator on earth.

Perhaps York police feel Operation Star-Nosed Mole doesn't have quite the right ring to it.

*Or, in the name of impartiality, Tory or Lib Dem activists.

Updated: 09:11 Wednesday, April 06, 2005