What to do when a volcano stops your campaign?

As daft as it sounds the volcanic eruption in Iceland nearly put an end to my campaign. The nomination papers for every candidate in Stevenage have to be with the returning officer by Tuesday April 20th 2010 at 4:00pm at the latest. To stand as a candidate for a political party you have to be authorised by the official nominating officer of that political party. My nominating officer and party leader, Mandy Ringwood, is stuck in Spain.  She was due back today but has been told that she cannot get back until Friday, well after the final date for nominations. No other party officer can sign the form!

So, having gone through a variety of ideas like driving my Yamaha R1 motorcycle all the way down to Spain, or challenging the Top Gear team to see who could get there first given any form of transport other than aircraft or contacting the SUN newspaper to rescue Mandy like they did for the donkey, my more sensible wife suggested we ask the Electoral Commission to change their rules owing to unprecedented "act of GOD". So with help from the superb Electoral Services team at Stevenage Borough Council they did!

Mandy was allowed to send a signed fax delegating over her powers of signing to Bob Goodall the party treasurer who, happily, is in this country at least! and we have made election history for the first delegation of signing power due to an "act of GOD".

As a Christian that reason means a whole lot more to me than just insurance terminology!