Doing a John Leech

Although he doesn't know it, I have recently appointed John Leech as patron of the new Liberal Democrat Association of Tradesmen's Bell pressers. After his (to us) surprise election as MP for Manchester Withington last year, his wife was quoted as saying how, for many months, he got up at 7am to deliver leaflets. I thought: "Ah! A fellow tradesmen's bell presser!". It was very heartening to know that a fellow LibDem had got elected largely due to playing the game with tradesmen's bells (well I hope that was what he was doing, otherwise this whole posting is farcical). That is, get up at 6.30am and start pressing the tradesmen's bells at around 7am to get into blocks of flats. Otherwise you can never get into the flats to deliver leaflets unless you buzz someone in each section, which they don't really like.

There are obviously a lot of flats in Manchester Withington. You wouldn't expect the same here in leafy West Berkshire but I can tell you different. My ward of Victoria is effectively the centre of Newbury. In the last ten years there has been a major outbreak of flats here, and I have grown to love the "John Leech shuffle" at 7am. I did one this morning for 15 blocks of flats...that's 15 individual tradesmen's bells.....this is getting a bit anorakky.

Anyway, well done John Leech MP. Even though you might not know it, you are an inspiration to many Liberal Democrat Tradesmen's Bell pressers!