The Guardian has a first-class piece of detailed local reporting, giving a ground-eye view of the Hartlepool by-election: part one and part two. Hartlepool was Peter Mandelson's seat.
All politics is local. This is a well-told tale, of interest to retail politics political junkies everywhere. (Bloggers will also enjoy the role that one of the candidate's campaign blogs plays in the story.) The election will be the 30th.