When you speak at lots of public meetings, you get to know the specific types who attend, which can range from the genuinely interested and concerned, to the saboteur.

Last week we had the noisy spy. The type who agitates the person sat in front by writing down everything you say, turning over pages, shuffling around and whispering, over loudly  -‘what did she say?’ - whilst scribbling furiously, every thirty seconds or so. Spies really should at least be competent at shorthand and speaking in sotto voice.

The other night we had the crowd stirrer. This is the person who waits until someone in the audience asks a question and is not as happy as they would like to be with the answer, you as the past MP give. The crowd stirrer then noisily joins in, agreeing overly enthusiastically with the questioner. The crowd stirrer is very rarely the person to ask a question or to lead a discussion; they almost always piggy back someone else.

The difficult thing for me is to suppress the smile of recognition when you watch the spy/stirrer in action. There are a couple of other public meeting stereo types who haven’t surfaced yet, however, I am sure they will.

By and large, our meetings have been full of reasonable, intelligent, concerned people and have been a pleasure to hold.

Which is just as well, I have three more to attend this week.