Only a few hours until the polls open and, more importantly, less than 22 hours until they close. I will be so glad when it is all over and we can continue with a normal life again. This year I must try to remember how knackered I am now when the selection process starts and decline to take part (unless we do actually manage to turn over the Tories’ huge majority in Furnace Green.)
It feels like I have spent more time in Tilgate in the last week than I have at home in Broadfield, except for last night when I spent about 8 hours preparing paperwork for tomorrow, finally giving in and going to bed at 3am. I even forgot to watch the TV programme about the Large Hadron Collider – everyone was talking about it at work today.
The other night we came across the forces of evil. Bumping into the Tory candidate (yet again) was bad enough, but then we came across a group of 3 BNP members delivering leaflets. I recognised them from the count last year.
The most disconcerting experience was when I knocked on some chap’s door and introduced myself and he said “Oh I know who you are”. I thought he just meant that he knew I was with the party because of the rosette but he said he knew me because he had seen me around.
Not sure what will happen in my own seat. We stopped off to visit Thakordas on the way home from Tilgate the other day and he seems quite confident about it. He is certainly very organised over there. I feel a bit guilty about neglecting Furnace Green a bit in favour of Tilgate, but I already had my plans there before the extra Furnace Green seat fell vacant.
If we do manage to grab one of the seats in Furnace Green I hope it is TP who gets it – it would be very unfair otherwise, especially after his experience last year, and what happened to his daughter in Three Bridges in 2004.
Right now I think I shall go and read yesterday’s morning paper so I can then read today’s morning paper. It will all be doom and gloom but at 70p a throw I ought to actually read the thing and not just do the Kakuro puzzle on the back.
As I was leaving the polling station at 7.45 this morning (I am so impressed by that!) I nearly bumped into our local BNP candidate. He was telling the man he was with that he was checking the ballot boxes – only the BNP could think local elections in Bradford were akin to the travesties they hold in Zimbabwe. I almost wish I was living in the Thornton & Allerton ward so I could have voted for Captain Sensible’s Blah party candidate. Mostly because I like Seabrooks crisps. (And you used to pay your 70p, or whatever it was then, to only read the If cartoon…)