Coincidence on the cards as ex-councillor spots his image

Driving instructor Simon Parkes, 51, was shopping with his wife, Jackie, 47, in Whitby when he did a double-take in a Card Factory store.

He was amazed to see a black-and-white image of himself in the back of a car on the greetings card, taken when he was a Labour councillor in Hackney in London, nicknaming him “Sir Geoffrey”.

Bizarrely, the man he was snapped with has been edited out of the original – and replaced by the massive bear wearing a scarf. Mr Parkes now wonders if any famous figures he used to meet, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, were substituted.

Father-of-three Mr Parkes said: “I must have been sat with someone, maybe someone who’s been in the public eye, but for the life of me I can’t remember who it was.

“But I know for a fact it wasn’t an eight-foot teddy bear.”

Mr Parkes bought up all seven copies which were in the store, and friends and family have now been jokingly asking him to autograph the cards for them.

Paper House told Mr Parkes that it buys the images from a firm in Seattle, and this picture is just one of thousands used on greetings cards.

Mr Parkes was a Labour councillor in Hackney for six years before moving to Whitby. He is now planning to return to politics and is standing in the Streonshalh ward – the old Viking name for the seaside town – in Scarborough Council’s May elections.

He added: “It’s amazing that this reminder from my past political career has turned up in a card shop at the other end of the country, just days after I had decided to stand in the local elections.

“I’m taking it as a positive omen. When I start campaigning for the elections I will take a small version of the bear with me as a lucky charm.”

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