Since I lasted posted about the overall number of candidates selected by the three main parties in September, there has been little apparent improvement in the last four weeks (based on publicly available information). The table below assumes that the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems will ideally wish to field a candidate in every constituency in England, Scotland and Wales (632 seats). It also assumes that all currently sitting MPs will be re-selected. Overall, Labour have only 12% (77) of PPCs to select, the Tories have 28% (179) and the Liberal Democrats are languishing behind with a massive 69% (438) of constituencies still to select a candidate. At this rate you have to wonder whether the Lib Dems intend to fight every seat. I fully concede that there may be a few more selected candidates that have gone unpublicised but the trend is clear. Also included below for the first time is the gender balance of PPCs selected so far (71% male, 29% female). None of the parties fare particularly well, although Labour is clearly out front with 36% of PPCs being women. Whilst noteworthy it does not of course translate to anything substantive unless they are actually elected at the General Election.