Wednesday

OK, I know I am not normal. That is what my wife says anyway, just because I happen to enjoy election campaigns. I have been waiting for four years.

I get to Hove station at 6.45am to meet the BBC Breakfast News team, which needs a "local political expert" (do not have the heart to tell them I have lived in Sussex for only six months) to anticipate the nature of the campaign in marginal constituencies.

A paralysing gale is blowing in from the channel, but I utter my pearls of wisdom like a real trouper. A passer-by (bloke) tells me I "look gorgeous on TV". I dive for the taxi.

Friday

Spend the morning trudging around Brighton hotels in an attempt to find appropriate accommodation for a conference on the election later this summer. Most are a bit pricey for humble academics.

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Back to the office to write begging letters to potential sponsors. Do my weekly reflection on the election campaign for Southern Counties Radio. Then an interview for Austrian TV against a backdrop of sunbathing students. The Austrians are keen to know about the prominence of issues such as Europe and asylum seekers. They ask me if the Tories have anti-immigration policies akin to those of Jorg Haider's blatantly xenophobic Freedom Party. I explain that racial conflicts tend to be comparatively low-key in the United Kingdom these days. That night, race riots break out in Oldham.

Tuesday

Campus looks glorious for a team from BBC's One O'Clock News, which is vox-popping students about predictions of heavier than usual abstention among female voters. I give them my take on this, which they ignore in favour of a passing observation to the effect that female politicians have not been very prominent in the campaign. Oh well.

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An afternoon of marking dissertations in a stuffy office is interrupted by someone from the LA Times who wants to interview me about Labour's record in office. This becomes more drawn-out than expected (four times she says "and one final question").

I get a call from Southern Counties Radio to ask if I would be its studio pundit on election night. I do not like to ask if they seriously think anybody will be listening to SCR in the early hours of June 8 and anyhow I am too vain to say no. It could be fun, so long as I can stay awake until 4am.

Friday

Another day, another dissertation. And another interview, this time for the Hokkaido Shimbun (decidedly more exotic than SCR) on the challenges facing a second Blair government. On SCR later that day, I argue that the UK Independence Party might fatally weaken the Tories in a number of seats across the South, an impression reinforced by a visit to a hustings in Arundel that evening; there is no chance of anyone other than the incumbent Tory winning here, but UKIP's candidate elicits the most fevered applause, albeit from a minority. I am hoping for a night of surprises to keep me awake.

Paul Webb is professor of politics, University of Sussex and a keen election pundit.

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