I was having breakfast with a friend, Judy, a couple of weeks ago. She told me that she was very excited about a talk by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s Communications and Strategy Director, that she was going to see at the Dover Street Wine Bar. Very hard to get into, apparently – a limited audience – and all about how the next UK election will be won or lost online: if the key parties do not engage people with the new communications tools they will simply not be a relevant political force.

Sounds interesting, I said. How did you hear about it?

‘I just found a paper flyer for it lying on the pavement’, she said. ‘The courier picking it up from the printers must have dropped it. So I rang the number on the flyer and asked for a ticket. The person on the other end was shocked: they hadn’t told anyone about the event yet. So I got the first ticket.’

Wonder where the pavement fits into Alastair Campbell’s vision of election media.