The secret diary of an election photographer - Day 3

A truly hectic day. We managed over 1100 miles by plane and by road (thanks to Paul Harrison of Sky News for that stat). All the miles are being carbon offset, by the way.

A 4.30am start for me to meet the battlebus for a very early trip to Glasgow where Nick Clegg unveiled a poster highlighting the Conservatives policies which will lead to a 3% annual rise in VAT. That equates to about £389 for the average family. As an additional means of highlighting this danger, the Lib Dems adapted a famous Tory billboard from 1992 and used the 'Tory VAT Bombshell' tagline.

With Nick on this trip was former leader Charles Kennedy who was shared some of his memories of the last election campaign. Charles is always good value and was in fine fettle today.

After Glasgow, we headed to Eastleigh to meet up with Chris Huhne. I understand that in preparations for the leaders' debates starting next week, Chris has been role playing Gordon Brown.

We went to a factory which makes high quality cabling. There Nick gave a stump speech to the workforce before it was off again.

The plane this time took us the short hop to Bristol where we met Stephen Williams MP and Paul Harrod. They took us to the @Bristol science museum. It's not a museum in the sense that I know them! I is full of brilliant interactive exhibits aimed at young people.

Nick watched as some visitors created an animation - using some of the technologies pioneered by one of Bristol's most famous sons - Nick Park of Wallace and Grommit fame. He also watched as another exibit froze water in front of our eyes.

Then it was outside for another stump speech in the sunshine before we caught the train home.

Phew!

Tomorrow is another early start and full day.

A video of Nick and Chris speaking about the differences between Tory and Lib Dem tax policies is below: