A (European) Returning Officer's work is never done

One of my more pleasant tasks over the past ten years has been the five-yearly job of being Returning Officer for the South East European Regional List. On each occasion, I have enjoyed working with the Selection Committee, met and worked with a wide variety of applicants, and interacted with local members everywhere from Newbury to Canterbury, and from Oxford to Haywards Heath.

Curiously, with a list election, the Returning Officer remains in post until the close of nominations, so I am still technically on call. David Grace, who was selected to fill the tenth and final slot, and I have a running gag about a 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' scenario whereby candidates above him drop out, and he gets elected.

Frankly, I'd quite like to see David in Brussels, as he is one of the most forthright proponents of a European vision I have encountered. He's not pro-Europe for the sake of it, but has an acute understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the structures and policies of the Union.

As I've previously posted, I've already been called into action once, and, even at this late stage, anything can happen. So it was convenient that Ros was the keynote speaker at the South East/South Central Regional Conference, giving me the opportunity to touch base with members of the Selection Committee.

I also took the opportunity to discreetly lobby members of the English Candidates Committee in support of some of my proposals for reform of the candidate selection rules. Whilst the working group is now of the same view, we still need to convince English Candidates Committee and then English Council.