Guess what's not in his Facebook?

Another thing is for sure: This man is a politician, but in the sense that he is active not deceptive.

The full-time ward councillor and leader of Hounslow's Liberal Democrats is also the party's recently reselected prospective parliamentary candidate for Brentford and Isleworth.

After an hour-long discussion in a Hounslow café about the day-to-day and wider issues of being a councillor, he realises I think he's 28 going on 50, so he tries to convince me he's not all Mr Council.

"Monday to Thursday tends to be council, but from Friday to Sunday I try and find time for a social life. Like all young people I still go out clubbing."

Is he on Facebook? "Yes."

I went online and requested Coun Dakers' friendship in Facebook because he's a likable guy and because I wanted to get a look at his page, where ne'er a sheep was thrown.

Apologies to readers who don't use the social networking website, but every message, friend, group, application and posted item on this man's page has something to do with politics.

Compared with the silly interactive features Facebookers usually indulge in like Cat Quotes, Graffiti Wall, and Zombie, the background of Andrew's page are enlivened by applications I didn't know existed: The World's Smallest Political Quiz; Awareness Ribbons and Surveys; My Carbon Diet Plan and - this one takes the biscuit - Petitions, Votes, Polls and Questionnaires.

Last week the Brentford-born local roots enthusiast was one of the few, if not the only, elected politician camped out in a tent at the high profile protest at Heathrow, Climate Camp for Action.

His passion for politics started 15 years ago when Hounslow's then ruling party was Labour.

"I first became interested in politics at the age of 13 when the local swimming pools, the Brentford Baths, were threatened with closure by the council.

"People formed a trust to purchase the pool at a reasonable price with plans to do some sort of regeneration, but to this day the actual pool site sits empty and it will never been restored to an operational swimming pool because there just isn't the space.

"That cancelled the Labour Party out for me. I never looked to Labour again after seeing them do that locally," he says recalling the demise of a much-loved community facility.

"I have to confess I once voted Green. And when it came to choosing which party it was very much a choice between the Green Party and Liberal Democrats.

"A green Lib Dem is how I describe myself," he says with a smile before launching into a quick timeline of his political career so far.

After a year as a ward councillor Andrew was re-selected as the Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate for Brentford and Isleworth in May this year. He was first selected in 2005, but was defeated by Labour's Ann Keen. The results however showed an unprecedented swing of 9.3 per cent for the Lib Dems.

Coun Dakers surprises me by revealing that if he were to win the Parliamentary election he would not give up his Brentford ward council seat, he would hold on to it until 2010.

"My priority at the moment is getting elected to be MP for Brentford and Isleworth and I want to continue to build the Lib Dems as the effective opposition in Hounslow to the administration. A constructive opposition - we're not into the silly games that Labour seem to enjoy playing.

"You need someone who has local interests sitting in local communities," he says.

He refers to the ongoing cold war between the current Conservative Coalition administration and Ann Keen MP over her decision to withhold the right not to deal with Hounslow Council because Phil Andrews, a former member of the National Front, is on the executive.

"Right now there's no link of effective dialogue, there is nobody with them building a new bridge between Parliament and the council."

He admits it would not be feasible to continue sitting on the same number of council committees, but said he would keep his ward post in order to open up and quicken communication between government and the local authority.

Although he is a diehard local man Andrew has seen his fair share of the globe. As a late teen he spent six months in east Africa working in a secondary school teaching fine art and computing.

A few years later, after working for the United Nations in New York as an advisor following the completion of an Open University post-graduate degree, he moved to Fiji for a brief period. He lived with a Fijian family and wrote his dissertation.

Andrew has also worked for the BBC in IT and GlaxoSmithKline in business change management and most recently for the environmental charity, WWF.

Now the environment and living a low carbon life are Coun Dakers main areas of concern. If he doesn't cycle somewhere he takes the Tube and jokingly labels himself a "two-bicycle family".

He brings up An Inconvenient Truth, the Oscar-winning documentary made by Al Gore, the intelligent and eco-minded politician who until recently was more famous for being wooden than for anything he believed in.

The one plane trip Coun Dakers took last year was to attend his best friend's wedding in New Zealand.

"That's the sort of trip that in the future would be very hard to justify. If I had seen that film before booking that last trip I might have been sending my friend a video message rather than flying to his wedding," he says.

I find this a bit extreme, but at least he practises what he preaches.

The idea that he could have teleconferenced a wedding message to his friend in New Zealand is a bit much, but most of his ideas - like putting cycling lanes everywhere it is possible to put them to encourage people out of their cars - are excellent.

"What the Lib Dems offer is a synthesis of what's best of those three parties around us. It's how we balance social, economic and environmental spheres of the community in the world we live in."

Case work, or work on problems and issues raised by constituents is something Coun Dakers says needs to be given priority and is something that has been "woefully neglected" by the current MP.

Another area that strikes him as weak and in need of attention is housing, for which he would like to reform the current housing allocation system, Locata, with one that would use a function not unlike eBay's auto bid.

Community cohesion is another aspect of the borough that he would like to see strengthened as an active member of Hounslow Friends of Faith.

"Growing up in Hounslow, one of the things I have always appreciated is the diversity. Bar Buddhism, you can visit any of the world's faiths and traditions inside the borough and there is a Buddhist temple in Chiswick, but it's located 15 metres outside the Hounslow Borough border.

"We have got all these faiths and for the past 30 years all these faiths have been sitting alongside each other peacefully in Hounslow.

"The responsibility is on Hounslow to combat extremism and create new ways of bringing different parts of community and different generations together to better understand people of different backgrounds."

Planning and public transport are two more aspects of London life Coun Dakers would like to tackle as an MP.

"There is a huge need to help residents through the planning system because there are a lot of people who have not been involved in planning issues before.

"If you cannot find a way to plan sustainably here, then everyone in Africa and other developing countries are going to have a hard time."

"And public transport is great, but people have to be able to afford it."

Throughout our conversation I keep on thinking that Andrew would make the perfect candidate if he were to just tone it down a bit to appeal more to voters like me who are looking for socially and environmentally sensitive leaders, but who also would like to see a relaxed personality who does not appear to be politicking at every turn.

There's hope for him yet, because one thing you won't find on Coun Dakers Facebook page is that he has smoked cannabis, something he admits to without a flinch.

"But I have never smoked tobacco," he adds, like a true politician.