Respect on the tube

It is not often I bump into people who have the remotest interest in politics outside the rarefied quarters of the LibDems.

So it was with great interest that I just happened to overhear a group of about eight Respect activists talking on the tube today. They were going to Portcullis House to "grab some MPs - any MPs" to lobby them about something...they were talking excitedly about their rally on Sunday at Southall, poring over the Socialist Worker and chatting about George Galloway efficiently dealing with a mad woman heckler at a meeting.

All in all it was wonderful to see such excitement about politics, albeit from a different angle than I am used to.

My eyes must have been popping out of their sockets, because, after a while, one of them said to another: "That bloke over there is noticing everything we say".

So I then turned the other way and watched their reflection in the opposite window instead.