ELECTION EXCLUSIVE: Manish Sood, the attention seeking madman, before he was insane

THIS evening, I had a chance encounter with a man who used to be taught by Manish Sood, the hitherto unknown Labour candidate for North-West Norfolk, who today called Gordon Brown the “worst prime minister ever”. He has since been disowned by Lord Mandelson and his mother.

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Let me set the scene: there I am, leafletting Wood Lane with the eve-of-poll roll-out when an Asian gentleman across the road hollers at me. “Labour? Labour?” he asks, before crossing the street and accosting me - with warm words and a cheery smile.

“Gordon Brown’s doing a great job,” he tells me. “We’d never have got out of this recession without him. He’s a very good man, a very good man.” Then, on to the subject of madman-of-the-moment Manish Sood.

Unprompted, he says:

“I was watching the news today and I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing, that Indian man, the politician, criticising Gordon Brown. I haven’t seen him for nine years. He used to teach me, you know, the Indian guy.

“He used to teach me at the College of North West London. He’s from a good family, his mother used to be Mayor or something, but he was always a little bit crazy. I know it’s bad to speak badly of your [school] Master, but I think he’s doen a really bad thing today.

“One day he kind of just vanished. And then, nine years later, I’m seeing him on my tv.”

I press our random friend further, but alas, no more memories spring to mind, save that he sometimes got “quite angry” and maybe turned on Brown because “someone had probably told him to shut up” - backing up what his local party has said.

So there you have it, a quiet day canvassing round Welsh Harp lit up by a completely random, and I mean random, encounter with a Labour-supporting former student of a very-soon-to-be-former Labour councillor and parliamentary candidate. It’s a funny old world! :)

• Lynn News: Interview with a madman