Titbits — Hubs and ramps

■ Jules Pipe’s love affair with the Fashion Hub is picking up pace as the Council snap up more properties to further lubricate the borough’s ambition to be a playground for shoppers. Confused tourists are still arriving by the coach load to this glorified construction site, wandering aimlessly looking for the loos, which happen to be in the giant Tesco down the road.  Remind us again why we’re courting these people? If Hackney were a dinner party, they’d be the the host’s boring new boyfriend whose only appeal is the money — only this one can’t be dumped.

■ Polling stations are run like tight ships. You can’t wear giant rosettes, or wear a slogan T-shirt. But the non-biased dress code also applies to the building itself. After all, curtains in UKIP purple or a painting resembling the Lib Dem bird on the mantlepiece could sway the undecided mind. And what about the outside furniture? At Hackney’s Kings Crescent Estate (above) it seems there was a classic case of ‘partisan ramp’. Voters might need to close their eyes when forming an orderly queue on this strip of coalition yellow and blue.