June 6

That's it - the van has been taken from us. We were counting up the stop-offs tonight on fingers and thumbs and feeling a little bit miserable that it's all over: John O'Groats, Inverness, Glasgow, Newcastle, Hartlepool, Hull, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol, Dorchester, Padstow, Land's End. When I think about the 2001 election I will think about the van.

A fantastic time was had this afternoon at the hotel here - where a dozen VW owners turned up at short notice to see our model, say hello and think politics, just for a minute. Amazing how difficult it has been for the politicians to catch their public's attention even for an hour. We met Julian, with his girlfriend Zara, who said: 'The result of the election can't just be decided by two people in a combi. It has to be the whole country.'

But the lesson of our trip is that the whole country has pushed the snooze button on the election - certainly parts of it have. For us there've been moments of political frisson, particularly in this or that constituency poised on the edge of a razor - but by and large, voters seem to have made up their minds about the parties some time ago and don't feel they need the patronising intensity of an election campaign to drive it all home.

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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