A corner of England votes Green

BBC World Service came to Brighton to see what kind of city elects the first Green MP.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p007hcc2

Networking

Once, in a less humble period of my life, I was one of the top five women networkers in Brighton, according to a local paper. I think it was due to my appearing at the opening of a fridge at the time. It didn't do a thing for my business bank account, but that was largely because I was rubbish at business and brilliant at going to parties. Now I'm a grown up and am trying again.

But internetworking is a different beast and I have to admit to being quite addicted. I've tried the Facebooks and UK Press List and while they're useful, UKP in particular, they're not quite as dynamic as Ecademy. I spent three hours looking for writers in the London area to network with the other day and I already have over a hundred people in my contact folder as a result! I'm nowhere near that with Facebook. I wouldn't know how to begin.

So, my questions about how to market the writers' retreats are already getting answers and by the very people who may well come and join in. How cool? as my teenager would say.

In Perpetuity

The difference between being a writer and being a journalist is what happens to your words. You might want to argue that it's about intention, purpose. But the bottom line is whether or not you become dismissed, even by the fish'n'chip shop, after a quick glance.

And so I was rather thrilled that my eldest's first go at copy writing, aged nine, should be displayed on a very different medium, the Brighton bus. In what I thought was a brilliant promotional campaign for public transport which celebrated the richness, eccentricity and diversity of our fine city, I was invited to be one of the first to be featured.

Ok, so the truth was that I was doing my usual rant, this time to the MD of the bus company about his previous campaign which had a load of pensioners inviting us to join them on a charabanc trip rather than encouraging parents to leave the 4WDs at home and hop on board, and he called my bluff. "Come on then," he said. "You do it!"

'It'll be fun', I told the kids, as Ellie hid behind the sofa, fine-tuning the wording on that letter to Social Services she's been writing since she first could put pen to paper. LouLou, as always, was a pushover.

A couple of weeks later, we were in a photographic studio and I was holding a carpet bag while the photographer, Jerry Lebens, made LouLou and her Ellie look-a-like mate, Danielle fly. The link between Mary Poppins and getting the kids to school on the bus wasn't all that clear until the prices went up a few weeks after the campaign was launched.

Job done, Ellie was spitting. 'LouLou gets to do all the fun stuff', she sulked. 'Go on then', I goaded. 'You come up with the slogan and then your words will be as big as her face. We're on the bus....because....?' 'Dunno', she muttered. 'Because ...going to school... er.... on the bus is...mmmmm.. cool?'

Genius child.

And for three years, we pumped our little eco-message around Brighton and Hove, even though we had already left it long ago for our eco dream in the country. Until now. We have been repainted, wiped from Brighton's history in favour of this year's message - "A month's bus travel for the price of a tank of petrol". It doesn't even scan.