THE sight of Janet Anderson sitting in the managing director's office of threatened footwear firm J.H.Hirst, ringing round to try and find it customers to stave off closure, could be a metaphor for the whole General Election.

It must terrify the Tories not just in Rossendale and Darwen, but nationwide.

There could be not be a better example of how Tony Blair has changed the old party of Socialism and industrial confrontation into New Labour than Mrs Anderson ringing her corporate lawyer husband to trawl for supermarkets who might be new customers to save the firm from receivership.

But if she is very much New Labour trying to hang on to the party's most marginal seat (majority just 120), there are three rather more Old Labour MPs who are bankers to be returned to Parliament in three of the party's safest constituencies (majority weighted rather than recounted).

Terry Lewis in Worsley, Lawrence Cunliffe in Leigh and Ian McCartney in Makerfield will all see their majorities cut slightly because of a knock on reduction in the size of their electorates to boost the too small Salford East constituency while their share of the vote looks set to rise.

While all three men are safe bets for Labour, the horse they hope they have found for the course is Lindsay Hoyle in Chorley.

Son of the recently enobled former Warrington North MP Doug Hoyle, local councillor Lindsay is a bit of a New and Old Labour cross-over who hopes to finally oust Tory MP Den Dover.

After 19 years Labour believe his 2,524 notional majority after boundary changes is ripe for the taking by the Chorley boy.

The allegation that might cost Mrs Anderson her seat - the most marginal Labour constituency in the country with a majority of just 120 - is that she is just too New Labour.

The claim is that she spends all her time in London furthering her own career and not enough in Rossendale looking after her constituents.

It is an accusation she rejects as fiercely as she does most things and attributes some of it to her decision to make her constituency home at the Darwen end of the constituency.

But as Shadow Minister for Women she is highly visible in the media - in the case of her infamous joke that women would be more promiscuous under Labour, rather more visible than she would like.

For her to keep the seat it is vital that the falling out of the poll tax factor - resentment of which boosted Labour through East Lancashire in 1992 - will be offset by the fact that her Tory opponent Trisha Buzzard does not have the personal vote of her predecessor, former Minister David Trippier.

Mrs Buzzard - a divorced legal executive from Preston via Merseyside - is also no stranger to dropping the odd clanger as her claim that the poll tax should not have been abolished showed.

But she is from the North-West and like Janet she is a woman, a brave and courageous campaigner with a formidable Tory machine behind her in the constituency.

She clearly has a sense of humour - thus her campaign slogan - "I'm flying high with Buzzard."

Moderate and loyal on Europe and the single currency, she must fear the loss of crucial votes to the Referendum Party's Roy Newstead.

Mrs Anderson's problem comes from even further right - British National Party candidate 27-year-old building worker Andrew Wearden trying to poach votes in her Darwen backyard.

With the Liberal Democrat teacher Brian Dunning - a former professional footballer - running for second place and a decent shot next time round, all will rest on the battle of the political women.

In Chorley, the other key marginal, the Natural Law Party's Peter Ledbetter and the Referendum Party's Colin Heaton are not expected to make much headway while Liberal Democrat candidate Simon Jones can expect a ferocious attempt by Labour to squeeze his vote to ensure Labour takes a key target seat - 28 on the list - to get Tony Blair into government.

In Worsley, Mr Lewis's backing for Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw's law and order crackdown belies his left-wing image, but he feels tackling crime is the key issue on the doorstep as his voters complain about young thugs making their lives a misery.

Tory barrister Damian Garrido and Liberal Democrat, Carr's Soft Drinks worker Robert Bleakley, are just squabbling over scraps.

Similarly in Makerfield, where Tory hospital administrator Michael Winstanley and Liberal Democrat Bruce Hubbard, a history teacher, face the prospect of their votes being dwarfed by Chief Employment spokesman Mr McCartney's notional majority of more than 18,000.

Confusion over whether Referendum Party man Andrew Seed was going to stand will have done him no good.

Ex-miner Mr Cunliffe can look forward to entering his 70s in Parliament with no dent in his 18,000 plus majority, as Reading Tory Ed Young must know. The votes for local Liberal Democrat Peter Hough and locally bred Referendum Party candidate Roy Constable could be positively embarrassing.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.