A standard A4 sheet made from 80 grams/m² paper weighs 5 grams. I counted the equivalent of 14 A4 sized pieces of paper being delivered by the Lib Dems in Watford whilst I have been there (either addressed to me or not addressed to any particular member of the household). That’s 70 grammes.

Based on one person per house (in reality some of the literature was received in our house multiple times as it was addressed to each voter in the household) the paper usage comes out at:
(55,208 / 68.3) * 100 * (70 grams) = 5,658.21376 kilograms
(I couldn’t find the registered number of voters in the constituency anywhere so I calculated the total potential voters figure – 80,831.6 – from the BBC total votes and percentage turnout figures)

That’s 5.65 metric tonnes of paper or 1,131,64.75 pieces A4 paper delivered across Watford.

Also worth noting that these figures exclude leaflets/letters that arrived before I came back for Easter or after I left to go back to University.  I wonder how this compares to the local paper’s usage throughout the year, just a fraction of it I suspect.

First a quick recap on the previous scores:

• Selly Oak: Lib 2, Lab 2
• Watford: Con 3, Lib 2

Understandably there has been a huge increase as the election gets nearer and the pile is now so big I have been forced to get counting. Lack of hospital sign photos (obviously not fashionable this year) has meant a slight change in rules – I will now award points for all photos in an identifiable hospital location.

Few more pointers:

• All photos of Gordon Brown in the Libs/Con promo!
• Lib Dems have by far the most negative campaign
• I especially enjoyed the news article style “Green party out of the race in Watford constituency” from the Lib Dems

New Watford scores:

1. Liberal Democrats – 43
2. Conservatives – 8
3. British National Party – 4
4. Labour – 1

Top marks to the University for getting red, blue and yellow Hydrogen cars on show.  After spotting various presenters (Huw Edwards, Adam Boulton and Dermot Murnaghan apparently moonlighting at Sky)  and watching the Sky news presenter read her autocue for a bit we walked over to the Labour Party bus only for Peter Mandleson to appear out of the red hydrogen car.  We followed him, his entourage, the press and wet students until he went inside the security cordon.

Earlier in the day almost got run over by what I now know to be a Labour campaign poster, amusingly at lunch the same mobile ad firm drove past The Goose pub with politically disguised adverts for an upcoming A-Team film.

Loads of police/press/fences everywhere on campus.  Might go over and have another look after dinner.

Didn't realise this was meant to be promoting Brown until later...

Press

No.

Mandleson is in there. Honest

Nick Petrie/Redbrick

Surprisingly this promotional literature (+1) does not appear to be too in your face about the general election instead focusing on the past work of local councillors one of whom, David Radcliffe, is the PPC and is featured on the front page. Recycling is mentioned but there is no photo (boo, hiss!). In fact Radcliffe isn’t featured next to any of the people/items for which points are awarded and the entire A2 sized ‘newspaper’ remains a Nick Clegg free zone.

The back page features a nice graph (presumably from last years local elections) showing that “The Conservatives can’t win here” (+1). This reminded me of a time that one particular party back home (can’t remember which) got in trouble for producing a similar graphic which was not to scale so showing a party in a poor third place when in fact they were much closer. The title of the bar chart is “It’s so close here” but with 674 votes between Labour and the Liberals this annoys me. “So close” is more like 3 votes.

They do have a nice photo of a facepalm Gordon Brown though. I’m almost tempted to give them a bonus point for that. Almost.

Points awarded:  2

I am currently away at University living in the Selly Oak constituency of Birmingham (a safe Labour seat since 1992) where the drought of political leaflets so far has consisted solely of a typo-ridden leaflet from the Liberal Democrats and something from Labour earlier this week.

Am slightly disappointed.  If I was living at home in the three-way marginal seat of Watford (for which I will use my postal vote) I am pretty sure the pile would be much higher by now.

To make the campaign more exciting I will be awarding the parties points for their various campaigning methods (how hard they have tried!). Points are awarded for the following starting March 1st ending the day after the election:

• For each piece of literature delivered on behalf of a party
• For each photo of the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (the word “Prospective” seems out of place here…):
  • Standing next to a sign for the local hospital
  • Standing next to their party leader
  • Holding a recycling box/bin or the waste that is to be put into it
  • Which contains a Union Flag or St George’s Cross
  • (-100 if the aforementioned flag is being thrown out!)
• For every mention of an opposition party that “can’t win here” or are in “a poor third place”
• For every mention of the incumbents expense claims
• One point each time a single piece of literature contains more than 3 quotes from the local newspaper
• 5 points if a canvasser knocks at your door
• 15 points if the candidate knocks at your door
• A bonus point if the door-knocking person uses the phrase “can we count on your support?”
• Double points for anything not from one of the 3 major parties