Unfortunately the ramp is blocked by three shopping trolleys, all chained together. We are used to seeing these trolleys blighting the landscape and decorating front gardens all across the Courts and Guinness Trust estates, but this is moving beyond visual blemish and moving into the realms of actual nuisance and obstruction.

Drop a cigarette butt or crisp packet and council wardens will swoop down with an eighty-quid fine, but it looks like you can leave these things wherever you like with impunity.

A couple of years ago we got so fed up with it all a bunch of us spent an hour or two collecting all the abandoned trolleys just in the Courts area and returning them to the shops. We were told at the time that the shops had someone who goes round collecting trolleys , and we have also been told in the past that the council collect them and sort of hold them hostage, returning them to the supermarket in exchange for some payment or other.

I don’t believe that is happening.

All the evidence points to two things: the shops are not doing enough to recover trolleys, and their customers are abusing the ability to remove the trolleys from the parade. I don’t think that the behaviour of a hard-core of customers is going to change so it must be time to either greatly improve the collection or prevent the trolleys being removed in the first place.

I cannot believe that nobody who lives in this area is annoyed enough to force the issue. I think I would be if I lived in the Courts and was confronted with these all the time.

There is an obvious environmental benefit to having someone who lives within a few hundred metres of the shops walk home with their shopping instead of driving, but there must be a way to encourage that behaviour and not end up with masses of rusty wire trolleys around every corner.

Its always nice to hear stuff like that on the doorstep.

A lot of this is down to the way that a lot of politics is reported, with Westminster-based journalists making a big deal of the slightest nuance of something trivial that nobody who is not already part of the 'Westminster Village' circus can get at all worked up about.  Even when there might be some practical implications for us normal people, that can be glossed over as its not as interesting to the in-crowd.

The Tories must be hoping that nobody takes the time and effort to translate Redwood's latest big idea into plain English for everyone to see.   For example, there is the matter of the Working Time Directive and guaranteed holidays.

Most of us enjoy at least 5 weeks of paid holiday with bank holidays on top of that, and the fact that the legal minimum is 4 weeks including bank holidays is just one of those things we can't believe anyone would stick to. The unions have been campaigning for a long time to get the minimum holidays to be exclusive of public holidays, but as most of us already enjoy those  sorts of conditions it is hard to get a lot of support.

But there are still some companies sticking to that minimum.  Jayne went for an interview just over the road from where I work, and was offered a job, which she didn't accept.  The place did sound a bit Dickensian.  It sold stuff, but the boss didn't believe in computers so orders were written down onto forms by hand and not entered into an order system with links to a stock control system, invoicing system etc.  The staff were also expected to wear a uniform for their job taking phone calls from customers.  The pay looked quite good as an annual figure, but it turned out that the working week was at least 40 hours and there were only 15 days holiday.

During the interview the boss said that he knew most employers gave 4 weeks on top of public holidays, but it was not a legal requirement so he saw no point in giving more than he needed to.  You do wonder whether he would reduce holidays even further if he was allowed to, and you have to wonder how many more are like him.

If the Tories gain control while people like Redwood and Osborne are still in the party we could find out.  I am lucky.  I work for a large international company, which has significant union activity and a need to attract and retain the best skills to remain competitive in a high-tech industry.  Most of those staff value their conditions as highly as the bottom-line salary and have at least a basic grasp of the concept of work/life balance.  If we were offered a huge hike in salary in exchange for losing our holidays many of us would turn it down or start knocking at the doors of more enlightened companies, but we are in a position to do that.

Many workers would have no choice.  There are companies which put strong pressure on staff to sign waivers to opt out of the working hours limit even to the point of not hiring someone who refuses. [*] Those are the companies which would happily reduce annual leave entitlements – maybe only for new joiners at first.

Its a gross generalisation, but those workforces tend to be made up of people less likely to vote, and the most likely to be justifying that by saying that politics is boring and its not relevant to me. And whose fault is that?  Partly mine, for not being able to explain properly how politics might not be a bundle of laughs but is very relevant indeed.  They are not going to get this information from the media, and who else is gonig to tell them?

I think I have been wasting my time delivering a load of letters in the last couple of weeks when I could have been talking instead.

[*] My employers are not so bad. They do routinely present us with the waiver form, but only as part of the induction after you join, and they don't make an issue of it if you don't sign.  But here's a handy tip for anyone faced with a rogue company:  sign the form, get the job and then give them the formal notice you want to cancel that waiver.  They won't like it, and might make life difficult, but they can't sack you for it without attracting a court case. 

Another handy tip is to join a union first and then cancel the waiver.  Even if the company does not recognise the union they will know that the union would give you legal advice and support and might behave a bit better when you refuse to be worked every hour of the day.

At that point he asked "so… do you agree with all these Paki's being over here then?"

I didn't really want to be delaying myself there too long, so I gave the answer "yes I do", pointed out how much I value those friends I have who are Asian (admittedly not many) and those members of my staff who are Asian.

He didn't seem too pleased to hear that the BNP are not standing in Pound Hill North, but I did get him to grudgingly admit that there is good and bad in all people.  I suspect he will be a non-voter.

Its a shame really, because he really did seem like a nice bloke otherwise.  Like he said – there's good and bad in all people.

Our house, and the boot of our car will not be full of leaflets, newsletters, election addresses, maps, postal vote request forms, membership forms and lists of house numbers.  We will turn up at other members' houses empty-handed, deliver their stuff for them but we will still be able to swing a cat at home.

The cats have been warned.

Fortunately I have a lot of confidence in Jayne's abilities to do a much better job here than I ever did.

I have had a bit of a setback in Pound Hill North though.  Our agent arranged everything to do with election addresses. In order to not waste money I didn't ask for too many. Another consideration was my preference to spend more time on winnable seats like Broadfield South. I intended to only target specific known supporters in Pound Hill North (of which there are more than you might imagine) but the printers decided to give us all the same number of election addresses for each ward, for the same price.  I am guessing it was less trouble for them to do a load of runs the same size.

This morning I received a copy of the electoral register for PHN and find that I have more election addresses than there are voters!  In theory I could deliver one to every house in the area, so I'll aim for that and see how far I get.  Most members will be concentrating on their own wards and the marginal ones so I'll be mostly on my own. If anyone wants to join me for a nice walk in Pound Hill just let me know!  (Any Brighton bloggers fancy a day trip to Crawley? If the Tories can bus in supporters from all over the county I don't see why we can't)

Normally this sort of response would make me give up and back away but I decided to explain a bit about how the council elections were about things with rather more immediate impact on our day-to-day lives than hare coursing and I think he decided that, policies on hunting notwithstanding, he would vote for Jayne next month. 

I have a few doubts whether he will actually vote at all – with our turnout in Broadfield there is statistically only about a 15% chance – but if he does he is a lot more likely to vote our way.  Every little bit helps.

I spotted this while out canvassing this morning. Back in October we (a gang of Labour party members) went round the Courts estate of Broadfield rounding up abandoned trolleys and returning them to the shops.

I think I can remember removing three trolleys from exactly the same place back then, and now they are back.

Perhaps its where they want to be. We all know from supermarket experience that these things have a mind of their own sometimes. It could be that they have a rudimentary migratory instinct and seek out particular places, like salmon returning upstream.

Anyway, I also clocked the graffiti on the wall behind them. “people who tip are pigs”. It just tickles me that someone is upset about their environment being spoiled and decided to express that by spray-painting it on a brick wall. Is graffiti OK when it is ironic?

It was in this state in May 2005, I noticed it while going round getting our vote out in the general election.

Back in January I noticed that it was still in the same state, and reported it to Telewest.

A couple of weeks later I was passing again and went to look. It was still open, with fibres sticking out all over the place.

Today we were canvassing in the same road, and guess what? It just goes to show that you can get things fixed if you just take the time to report them.

A few members from other towns which do not have elections came along as well, and its always good to see new faces. Thats a hint by the way – we will probably be doing this sort of thing most Saturdays from now on: if anyone fancies coming along to join in just let me know.