May 25

The battlebus has not reached Bristol unscathed. Three breakdowns - and that's just the producer. Parked here in the South West, we look back on a day of lively political motion; and some unfortunate movement from the Dormobile as well.

But first a mention to Ray Berry, who helps maintain the Severn Crossings, lives in a portacabin under the mighty span of the second bridge, and is going on a charity expedition he says is right up Newsnight's street. We crossed the Severn earlier in the week and met the Welsh Nationalists (they want more self-government and more money from Westminster: some might say squaring that circle requires the invention of new geometries); we enjoyed our parking space on the redeveloped Mermaid Quay in Cardiff's Bay area, the sunlight glorious; and then, on leaving Wales, Ray collared me to say that he and his fellow bridge-maintainers are doing a walk in aid of St Anne's Hospice in Newport.

'We'll be climbing the peaks of Foelgrach, Skiddaw and Ben Lomond in twenty-four hours,' he said energetically. 'Your van wouldn't make it.' The hospice cares for terminally ill people of all ages. The second Severn bridge is almost new so it doesn't need much work. Repair work after crashes and fires, mainly.

'What do you think of the election?' I asked him. Turned out we had found a Tory voter. 'Last night the TV attracted my attention because William Hague was on. I liked him - thought he was alright. But there's too much burotics - '

Burotics? What, like bureaucrats and bureaucracy? 'Exactly.'

He starts his walk on August 31st.

Jeremy's diary entries:

May 8 - John o'Groats

May 10 - Glasgow

May 13 - Newcastle

May 16 - Hartlepool

May 17 - Hartlepool

May 21 - Birmingham

May 25 - Bristol

Jeremy's letter to Bristol Council

May 29 - Dorset

June 5 - Cornwall

June 6 - Land's End

The van's fate

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