We have a local councillor election tomorrow in my area. Over the past four weeks numerous leaflets have been sent to me. On two occasions, the candidates themselves have appeared on my doorstep – whilst I was out. But, such is the way of politics that I never see these people outside of elections. So much for the passion and commitment they allege to have to my area.

Today, I received a ‘personal’ ‘thank-you’ letter inside a hand-written envelope from one of the candidates. The letter was even hand-written too. Gosh, what an impact I must have made. Gosh, a personal letter. How nice and, um, committed.

Except, it wasn’t a personal letter. It was a hand-written letter that had then been professionally printed.

My lesson of today is: don’t claim that something is personal, when it plainly isn’t.