Andy Mitchell from Radio Wave

One of the more charming, if predictable games people like to play with me is to try and guess my politics.

Now as a journalist, of course, I’m supposed to be above all that, dealing each day in an even handed and impartial way, the various dramas going on at the Town Hall, and I trust I manage to achieve it.

It’s a balancing act that has now gone on for more than three decades, but it doesn’t stop the latest crop of local politicos from having a go, albeit it in jest.

It’s gone on since 1982..”Oh yeah Mitchell, he’s obviously a Tory. He went to public school and his Dad’s a Conservative, so there you go....”

Then the next day I’ll get the alternative onslaught from some dyed in the (blue) wool Tory. “Oh yes well Mitchell’s as red as they come you know... did you hear Simon Blackburn on the radio the other day? etc etc”

The truth of the matter is, of course, that as any journalist who has been scribing away for years covering the various crises will tell you, having seen the many characters come and go, watched both the tears and the adulation on election nights, I personally don’t care either way.

You see it is probably as a result of being a part of the machine that brings you the news, that you DO get to see ALL sides to every story, the twists and the turns, the bits they want you to know, the bits they don’t, the briefings and the ballyhoo, that you just tend to switch off and it is just the job and nothing else.

I know that ALL our local councillors do a sterling job for their constituents, I speak to many on both sides of the great divide, and I’m fortunate to count many as my friends.

However, if you ask me who my own local councillor is, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. He or she is no doubt doing a fabulous job, but they don’t enter my orbit at all.

Maybe I’m part of a new generation who don’t need them, but that is a debate for another day. We’re almost on a local election footing again. Bet you’re looking forward that that!