Bill appointed me as his election agent. Doorstepping in Crediton with Bill was memorable. ‘This is Bill Tupman, your Labour candidate’, I explained at the first house. ‘Well I can see he is not standing for the conservatives’ was the reply, as Bill shambled up behind me. He explained that it was traditional to remove the leaflets of competing candidates if they were only half way through a letterbox. This seemed to be the only way in rural areas that we could tell if we were leafleting in Mid Devon or were on someone else’s patch, which we usually were. We had a lot of fun and he lost his deposit. He will be sorely missed in several good Exeter pubs.