Katie has been a Reporter at Channel 4 News for two years. She joined the programme in 1998 as a News Trainee, was a Producer and then Producer/Reporter before her promotion. She often presents the Sports News on Saturdays.

Katie reported on the tsunami from Sri Lanka where she was on her honeymoon. She covers a wide range of domestic stories, including court cases, animal rights extremism and politics. She covered the Trupti Patel appeal, in which a mother was dramatically cleared of murdering her three babies after the evidence of a key expert witness was discredited. She later secured the only television interview with the family.

Monday 25th April

The Tony and Gordon "we're best mates" show came to Bristol today. Marginal seat. Lib Dems and Tories biting at the heels of the Labour MP Valerie Davey who's been keen to repeat during this campaign she was against the war.

A totally stage-managed visit naturally - Labour minions wandering around asking who we were, why we were there, were we part of the pool arrangement, no? Well then you can't film here. Here being beside a bridge over which the Prime Minister was due to walk imminently.

A strategically positioned group of Labour student supporters had been lingering with coffees (sitting outside on a freezing day like today, a total give away that they weren't just hanging out with friends) at the foot of the bridge ready to greet the PM. Pretty chilly stuff. And in the end completely redundant. New Labour's brightest stars were delayed which meant there was no time for the "bridge walk".

They took a different route to get to the tourism centre they were touring. A crowd gathered to watch them come in, people at windows of offices, standing on walls to get a view. One man behind me looked to be holding a box of flour. A policeman spotted him and stood close by.

False alarm - he cheered when Mr Blair arrived. So, it's got to be said, did most of the crowd. Perhaps the other parties have got all this distrust of the Prime Minister stuff wrong. Or maybe in Bristol today, they were all hand-picked…

Tuesday, April 19

I think it was the first punch up of the campaign. It didn't rival John Prescott's jab in 2001, but a jacket got ripped and some posters trodden on.

Middle England's version. And we got it on camera. The seamier side to electioneering.

There's something rather remarkable about people caring so much about their party that they're willing to turn up with banners and balloons for the arrival of another party's leader and stand in the cold just so they can spoil the photo opportunity. You see it all the time.

What you don't seen though is a proper fight. But in Okehampton, outside the local hospital, that's just what happened as Liberal Democrats rallied to welcome their leader and the local Tories tried to rain on the parade.

Who knows who started it, but it kicked off when the Tories tried to put their banners in front of the Lib Dem ones. A proper ruck and at least one man on the floor – while Charles Kennedy got off his bus, serenely oblivious, and toured the hospital with what was no doubt an important message on health.

I suppose that's the job of the loyal election worker allocated the leader - make sure all the nasty stuff goes on somewhere out of view. “Anywhere else. just... not... near... THE LEADER.”

It's tense out here - 1200 votes in it last time, the Tories want the seat, the Lib Dems are determined to hang on to it. The Tory candidate (who was canvassing elsewhere - Devon West and Torridge is the second largest seat in England and boy did we find out as we drove miles and miles to ensure we interviewed the three main parties' candidates) told me the election was being carried out in a very friendly and peaceful manner.

That's not what it looked like where i'd been.

From the frontline, of sorts....

So there I was in a Devon country garden watching my cameraman being attacked by a goose. He was taking the flapping, pecking creature in his stride "far braver than the gardener"- its impressed owner said. When it turned on me though, I ran.

We were searching out UKIP supporters in a place where the party did startlingly well in the last European elections and we drove past past a beautiful little cottage sporting not just a Union Jack but two huge UKIP banners. Worth a try though we had already stopped and saw other homes with UKIP posters up. We had been told by one owner he had put them up as a "favour to a friend" and was not actually planning to vote anti-European. In denial?

Third time lucky though, the 82-year-old UKIP voter we found was terrifically welcoming. She said: "So nice to see a lovely young English reporter." Her views on Europe and foreigners were fierce and frightening but more forgivable perhaps in an elderly woman who said she had survived being shot at by the Nazis. The goose on the other hand was unexpected. Cameraman leg extricated, briefly we did a quick interview and scarpered. Not exactly in the job description.

What is it about Dorset South? Last election Oliver Letwin went missing, this time it was the lesser known Ed Matts, Conservative candidate for Dorset South.

He'd doctored a photo of him and Anne Widdecombe at a demo for a local asylum seeker so the placards they held now talked about controlled immigration, more in line with Tory policy.

Stupid, because 1) it's deceitful and 2) far more critically ,let's face it in the dogfight of politics, you get caught.

He did. So there we were on the Weymouth seafront, lenses pointed at a group of Labour workers waiting for the masterminded arrival of a soon-to-be-gloating John Reid.

The Labour plan - to march on the local Conservative office and demand to see a, by now, AWOL Mr Matts. A PR stunt of course, but par for the course in a general election. I couldn't help note the irony, as they dragged us camera crews in tow along the high street, of the sign we'd spotted: KEEP ALL DOGS ON LEASH. John Reid as Labour attack dog... it's been mooted before.

The Conservative Club was a wonderful sight - a big house full of smartly dressed, elderly party faithful (the tories don't want it to be true but it so often is) enjoying a glass at lunchtime. Mr Reid made his point and left, this time by car - no need for walking now the cameras had their shots.

I made a phone call inside and was asked rather plaintively by the gent who answered if "the Labour workers" had gone. He was clearly traumatised but the others seemed to have relished the experience. One elderly couple emerged smiling for the cameras and the man made great play of asking us not to film them together as "I'm not lunching with my wife".

More pleasure clearly being had there than most of us were having watching politicians on all sides score points.

Not in the South West today but the East Midlands where almost nobody I asked could name Robert Kilroy Silk's party (it's Veritas, as all Channel 4 News viewers know, I'm sure).

"He's been in too many" one man told me. We were the only TV crew here, trying to find out why in February, when his party launched to a very purple fanfare (well, red, blue, yellow and green were already taken), they said they already had more than 100 candidates in place for the election and planned to contest most UK seats. But fast forward two months and they've only been able to give us 79 names.

Kilroy himself didn't seem bothered - he worked the marketplace, showbiz stardust literally sparkling around him. Shoppers gladly took his Veritas pamphlets, then handed them back to be autographed. He smiled, he charmed, he grasped hands, he gleefully repeated some of his views on Arabs - and almost everyone he spoke to seemed to love it. The permatan looked out of place of course, but Kilroy was completely at home.

Got to hand it to him, he has no fears about how people will react, he knows he can deal with any situation. That's the TV pro in him. And apart from a group of teenagers shouting "Kiljoy", he got through it completely unscathed. Nobody brought up that ego - they wanted to talk immigration, MRSA and how they don't like the big parties.

Veritas doesn't have much money. Kilroy told me the millionaire businessman Paul Sykes, who used to give so much money to his old party UKIP, had been on the phone asking how Veritas was doing but Kilroy hadn't asked for financial help. They have managed to find enough money for a Veritas vehicle though - it's a purple F-reg Ford Escort van. Not exactly a stylish way to hit the campaign trail. Mr Kilroy-Silk wasn't travelling in it. He preferred a black Daimler. Wouldn't you?

As far as those candidates go, perhaps potential Veritas PPCs are put off by the form they have to fill in - check it out at www.veritasparty.com - there's a psychometric test and the first question goes like this:

Delete as appropriate: I like to be in charge. Tend to Agree/Tend to Disagree. What can the right answer possibly be, I wonder?