In a fit of democracy I went to the hustings last night to hear my local PCs talk abiout, well, themselves. It was all strangely predictable and was mostly:

• Richard Brighton (LibDem) reminding everyone that politicians can be really bland, agreeing that Lynn Jones should be a Liberal Democrat and sniping at the Tories.


• holaholaamigos being the voice of DOOOM!, demonstrating the (lack of) breadth of UKIP's single issue politics and sniping at everyone except the Greens who he ignored.


• Lynne Jones (Lab) reminding everyone she wasn't Tony Blair, agreeing with the Liberal Democrats and sniping at the Tories


• Barney Smith (Green) reminding everyone why we shouldn't vote Green, why candidates should have some form of PR training and sniping at the Tories


• Joe Tildesley (Conservative) reminding everyone that too much slick PR training and oily manner does nothing to increase your credibility, and anyone who starts every sentence "Ladies and Gentlemen" just looks like an idiot.

I took a couple of photos (for Ronan's family album), extensive notes (that I might post here next week) and was chuffed when my question on Tactical Voting was read out. Needless to say they all said "Vote for who you like" but Lynne dd remind us "But vote for me unless you want the Tories in" at the same time. Clever eh!

The audience was as expected really, some goths, most of whom can't actually vote here, the Tory candidate's supporters, some pensioners and a lot of Guardian-reader professionals. The only ones wearing suits - that'd be the Chairman, two of the candidates and the sharpest suit - that'd be Lynne Jones' agent.

So there we go, I still believe that I shall probably vote LibDem, but I will feel very dirty if the Conservatives win as a result.