You do have to wonder who's reading The Kemptown Rag. Obviously there's Jimmy Somerville, Patsy Palmer and Annabel Giles, all of whom live within spitting distance (which explains the damp patch on my front door), and who I'm sure leaf through the Rag on a regular basis. Before using it to line the budgie's cage. That's if any of them own budgies. They're celebrities, so they probably have chihuahuas.

But it's possible they're not alone (in the Rag-reading I mean, not the dog-breeding). My love note to David Van Day was published in the issue which came out on Friday 30th March. Three days later, on April 2nd, a similar report appeared here, written by Labour Party Activist, Hackney Councillor, and double election loser, Luke Akehurst. Luke claims to love both Europe and Israel, so he must have been in hog heaven (excuse the bacon reference) when Dana International won Eurovision.

But that aside, he's also a self-confessed Guardian reader, which could be significant, as four days after his post, and a week after The Kemptown Rag hit the streets, Mr Van Day's spelling was also featured in The Guardian Diary. If I'd known they might be interested, I'd have sent my article straight to Alan Rusbridger.

But still, favouring a local rag over the national press does have its advantages. The current issue which came out yesterday features two (count them) letters responding to my DVD stand, one of which is from Peter Snape (the former Labour MP for West Brom???) who mentions The Guardian (what is this, some kind of conspiracy??) and says he assumed my piece was an April Fool's joke until he retrieved the original mailing from his environment box. Which is so Brighton - you don't bin the election leaflets, you recycle them.

Anyhoo, more important than the state of British politics is of course today's Grand National. I obviously have a fine record of predicting the winners here (don't bother checking the archives), so here are my guaranteed selections for this afternoon's race.

1st. Bothar Na at 25-1

2nd. Idle Talk at 20-1

3rd. Billyvoddan at 18-1

4th. Liberthine at 33-1


I should add that the favourite, Joe's Edge, doesn't stand a chance and won't finish within a country mile of the winner. And you can quote me on that come 4:30pm.