MAY DAY, MAY DAY......

I shudder to think what kind of state I will be in on Saturday. As usual, I am at Manchester town hall Thursday night covering the local elections for PA (Press Association). I must be honest this is not an onerous task. It just involves adding up the numbers and ringing over the results. I do, however, look forward to it every year as it's a chance to meet up with old friends and comrades and we usually head off to a bash somewhere in the city centre to watch the results all over the country. This year,that's unlikely to be an occasion for elation but I still vividly recall the 1997 Manchester Labour election do at an extremely swanky bar called Mash and Air which had been donated for the night by restarateur Oliver Peyton. Whoops of joy with the odd grumble because they didn't do beer in pint glasses. And, oh, that Portillo moment.....That. as they say, was then.

While the rest off the nation licks its wounds on Friday we in West Yorkshire have to head for Halifax for a belated count. As a paper candidate, my nerves are hardly on edge. But I do fear the BNP will make headway again in two particular wards. Chances are we will all head back to Hebden Bridge and the Trades Club for a lengthy post-mortem. Then on Saturday there's a rally in Leeds organised by the TUC with Jeremy Corbyn MP so an LRC contingent will be heading over . For anyone interested, the meeting-point is Leeds Art Gallery at around 11.30am. I will be the one looking like death warmed up...