The mission was to visit the constituencies with the richest, poorest, youngest and oldest electorates to get a snapshot of modern Britain in all its diversity and contradictions.
And to do it in a single day. On public transport. Needless to say, not everything went according to plan.
But what emerged – after more than 600 miles and a lot of buffet car coffee and sandwiches – was something you would never get from a stage-managed campaign event.
A feel for what people are really thinking. Some of it may surprise you.
So join me as the journey begins in the one place in Britain where you are guaranteed to find plenty of older voters. Or so I thought.
Where Freddie Starr and Mike and the Mechanics are on the cutting edge of live entertainment.
Where the pavements are choked with mobility scooters. Where the average age, in one part of the town, recently surpassed 70.
That’s only half the story, however. Young people are everywhere in Eastbourne.
