To "be" or not to "bee"

These are the freepost leaflets from the Blaydon candidates: 2 from me, 2 from Labour's Dave Anderson, an unaddressed leaflet from the Conservatives' Alison Griffiths and an addressed leaflet from UKIP. There was nothing from the Greens. The leaflet from UKIP meant that I got to see what their candidate Mark Bell looks like. He has attended none of the hustings and produced no other leaflets. His freepost arrived last week. Last year he was the UKIP candidate in my ward but produced no leaflets and did not come to the account. At least now we know he exists!

I have to plead guilty to a typo in my 2nd freepost. I am described as a "bekeeper" rather than a "beekeeper". None of us spotted the mistake until it landed on our doorsteps! I also spotted a mistake in the Labour leaflet. It claimed it was Labour policy to increase NHS spending by £8 billion. Oh no it isn't!

Anyway, I have an early start in the morning and I doubt I'll be writing any posts tomorrow. So, I'll take this opportunity to wish my opponents well. It's been quite a calm campaign for the Blaydon seat. It's likely the declaration will pass the world by without causing any ripples, a rather unfortunate characteristic of our not-fit-for-purpose voting system in which so many seats have a foregone result.