Scurrying into the local polling station last night at 9.55pm I laughed out loud upon being presented with a ballot paper that was well over half a metre long. I'd like to thank the election staff for the good grace with which they dealt with my no doubt peculiar request to examine the box the pads of ballot paper were supplied in for clues about who printed it. Sadly none were to be found.

On social networking sites this morning I found comments from people saying "the ballot paper was taller than I am!", and "I hope they were recyclable, what a waste of paper".

It also transpires that UKIP is lodging a formal complaint about apparently "machine folded" papers in North Yorkshire, by the sounds of it of a similar if not greater length, whereby their party's existence was (supposedly) obscured by a sharp fold at the bottom of the strip. My paper received a sort of hand concertina fold from the presiding official, but the originals definitely arrived flat packed.

Nothing like a bit of print-based controversy to herald the weekend, eh? Information on the printers producing this curious format would be much appreciated, it's bound to come in handy one day.