The circus comes to town

As it's been a beautifully sunny afternoon - and I'm still waiting for work to come through - I thought I'd wander down to the harbourside to take a look at the media circus that's landed on Bristol for tonight's leaders' debate, being hosted at the Arnolfini. When I got down to the city centre, I was actually rather surprised by how few people there were about. Ordinary people that is - the area was swarming with men in dark suits, armed police and media types talking into their mobile phones or doing pieces to camera along the waterfront. On my way down, I'd been half thinking of appropriately intelligent comments on politics and politicians just in case anyone with a microphone should come up to me, but I didn't bump into Brown, Clegg or Cameron and none of the media types seemed to want my woman-in-the-street opinion today. I enjoyed the sunshine though as I sat on a wall watching the police boat patrol up and down, machine guns at the ready in case of any false move from a passing swan!