Snap!

There is to be no election.

It's a shame really, as I had just put my yellow jacket in the wash to be sure it was gleaming brightly for the big day. No, I don't dress up to vote, the jacket is for Operation Sandwich, launched in glory across town every General Election.

The duties of the Op Sandwich team are fourfold:

• Arrest anyone wearing an illegal rosette outside a polling booth.
• Arrest anyone trying to influence people's vote.
• Switch off speed cameras between Sunderland South and Westminster.
  
• Eat a lot of free sandwiches.

To fulfill these duties, four transit vans of six officers plus a sergeant are deployed across town working twelve hours for double bubble. (We get double-time if we're given less than five days notice of working a rest day. As these Elections are usually last minute, it's impossible to give us any more notice.)

The task of the transit teams is to visit all the polling stations two or three times and ensure "fair play". Oh yes, and there's a form to fill in about what we found at each station - so we can plan the next Op Sandwich.

Personally I don't think the Operation goes nearly far enough, and will be putting my suggestion into the box that next time we install CCTV in each booth and have officers on standby to carry out immediate computer checks on anyone voting Labour. The chances are we'll nab a lot of people wanted on warrant. Except that they don't vote.

Plan B: visit every home in Blandmore and carry out computer checks on anyone who hasn't gone to vote.

An Area Commander in the making, I hear you mutter.



Suspicions flare as Brown announces that Opera Interactive Technology will be counting the votes at the next general election.







---------------------------------------------------------
Copyright of PC Bloggs.