In a couple of months Jayne will be standing for election in Broadfield South. Her Tory opponent will be the sitting councillor, who got elected in 2004 by getting 22 votes more than I did.

Today her campaign got off to a flying start in the letters page of our local newspaper. Apparently he wrote a letter or made some quote last week, and this week there were a total of seven letters from members of the public basically calling him a twat.

I am wondering if we should ask him to contribute some of his increasingly bizarre opinions to our election material – but it does take the fun out of a contest if the opponent keeps shooting himself in the foot.

As it is, I cringe at neighbourhood forum meetings if the bloke refers to PCSOs as “your semi-police officers” when talking to our police inspector. Last week’s statement which attracted the huge response was that recycling of tin cans is pointless when there is a water shortage because of the three litres of water wasted to wash a single tin can. I think we can infer that he doesn’t bother to recycle then.

My favourite comment in the paper was “how did we elect someone with such little common sense as a councillor?”. This was, unfortunately, from someone elsewhere in town but its a question we have been asking ourselves in Broadfield South for two years.