In all the excitement, I haven’t had a chance to upload my chopper gags.

‘Axe the Tax’ photos like this have lead to a whole series of ‘how big is your chopper’ gags. As you can see, Paul Holmes MP has a very big chopper indeed.

But not nearly so much as the problem of guillotining leaflets. Printing A5 leaflets on A4 or A3 paper means you need an awful lot of chopping done.

At work we don’t have as big a chopper as I would like. In fact, it’s old, blunt, the safety screen has long since broken off, and it can only handle about 10 sheets at a time, which isn’t much help when you have a constituency’s worth of leaflets to chop.

So, we spent a fair amount of time bombing down the M1 with a carload of leaflets to colleagues 60 miles away who have an industrial size chopper — one so big you need both hands to get it to work. So big, it has a label stuck to it saying ‘Einmanbedienung’ — for use by strictly one operator at a time. It can cut 500 sheets at a time.

Even when you factor in the time to take 40,000 sheets of paper downstairs, load them into a car, drive them 60 miles down the M1, unload them, and carry them upstairs to the chopper, it’s quicker to use the industrial chopper than the office one.

Since I’m going to be working all day on polling day, I’ve applied for a postal vote.

Which hadn’t arrived by this morning’s post, because I didn’t leave home till the postman had been.

So, I phoned the elections office to ask where my vote was and what I can do about it, and apparently it was posted to me a fortnight ago. Not to worry, councillor, if you turn up at the Guildhall tomorrow with photo-ID and something with your address on, we’ll issue you with an emergency ballot.

Which is all very well, and quite reassuring that I will actually get a vote…

… except that somehow, my postal vote turned up at my house inbetween me leaving and my other half getting home.

Where has it been for 14 days?

A very powerful article in the Guardian today by Francis Beckett

… anyone who voted Labour in 1992 is likely today to have far more in common with
Kennedy than with Blair.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1471845,00.html

A very powerful article in the Guardian today by Francis Beckett

… anyone who voted Labour in 1992 is likely today to have far more in common with
Kennedy than with Blair.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1471845,00.html

A Nottingham Labour councillor has started mentioning my website whenever he sees me. I’m not quite sure why. He has a website too — but his just mentions his work. It’s here.

DSCF1877
Originally uploaded by dr_nick.

My brother is back from his Everest trip and starting to post his photos to Flickr.

This one’s stunning, as are many of the others. Click the link for his pictures, his write-up of his trip is in my links at the side of the page.

“… Robert Elm falls in love with with a pair of punk bondage boots.

“But first on Radio 4, the weather.”

“Thank you Caroline…”

The joys of driving home post-midnight.

“… Robert Elm falls in love with with a pair of punk bondage boots.

“But first on Radio 4, the weather.”

“Thank you Caroline…”

The joys of driving home post-midnight.

Well. The thing that really strikes me about this general election mularkey is how long it’s going on. Our office is helping to run the campaign in about 12 constituencies, intensively in 5, and less hands-on in the rest. We’ve written, designed, printed, bundled and delivered hundreds of thousands of leaflets. Barely a day goes past without another huge delivery from the commercial printers as well as the mechanic getting fed up with how many calls he has to make to look at our long suffering in-house machines. The postal votes are being delivered this weekend, the first lots of election addresses have been with the Royal Mail for a week or more and in many cases are already appearing on the doorstep. Hundreds of posters have gone out, stakes are being put up in gardens.

And the handy little ticker on the website says there are still 13 days to go.

Bah.

Well. The thing that really strikes me about this general election mularkey is how long it’s going on. Our office is helping to run the campaign in about 12 constituencies, intensively in 5, and less hands-on in the rest. We’ve written, designed, printed, bundled and delivered hundreds of thousands of leaflets. Barely a day goes past without another huge delivery from the commercial printers as well as the mechanic getting fed up with how many calls he has to make to look at our long suffering in-house machines. The postal votes are being delivered this weekend, the first lots of election addresses have been with the Royal Mail for a week or more and in many cases are already appearing on the doorstep. Hundreds of posters have gone out, stakes are being put up in gardens.

And the handy little ticker on the website says there are still 13 days to go.

Bah.