The year began with a dawning realisation that life was about to become very different. The unique role of Presidential husband - yes, I am the first (or should that be "no, I'm Spartacus") - was likely to be a bit of challenge to a slightly impulsive bureaucrat. I didn't realise just how much of a challenge it would turn out to be.
However, there were trips to make, conferences to attend and travel plans to make. The first of these was to Wales, but I would be just about everywhere before long. Trains were a personal bugbear, and my unhappiness over National Express's axing of my much-loved Monday morning full English breakfast spilt over to a general criticism of the cheeseparing greed and incompetence of various train operating companies, South West Trains being an early target. And whilst, occasionally, I would be nice about trains from time to time, my personal grudge against National Express would keep me warm for months to come...
Another feature of the early months of the year was expenses. I had already spotted that there would be trouble given the freedom of information legislation that had been passed, and it was clear that some Parliamentarians didn't really get it. And sure enough, they didn't, and boy, what a mess they found themselves in.
I'm not an easy person to provoke, and yet I was obviously becoming more sensitive. I picked fights with Iain Dale over Israel, Irfan Ahmed over just about everything, James Graham over his attack on Paddy Ashdown, and I hadn't even started on Liberal Vision yet. I needed something to keep me occupied, clearly. Ah yes, being Liberal Youth's Returning Officer would keep me usefully engaged. How difficult could that be, after all?
Ah yes, Liberal Youth... and there I was, in the middle of one of the most unpleasant contests in the history of youth politics in this country. Who was it that sang, "clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right"? If that seems a bit harsh, and it is in retrospect, I was at least "stuck in the middle" with Ros. And yet, in spite of everything, I managed to emerge from the whole sorry saga with my credibility intact, and Liberal Youth went on to be much more successful, so it must have been worth it.
I was now beginning to take an interest in my new neighbourhood too. A Local Government Review was underway in Suffolk, albeit falteringly, and although I still owned a house in London, there was no intention that this situation would last...
4 comments:
Re the Liberal Youth elections, be honest Mark.
It was only Sara's side which caused trouble and luckly that candidate and her vile bullying supporters have faded into well deserved obscurity while Elaine had gone on to lead Liberal Youth from success to sucess
Anonymous,
It all depends on your perspective, I suppose. Having taken grief from all sides and none, I stand by my comments. Assuming that you were on one side of the contest, your view might well be coloured by that perspective. And trust me, whoever you are, you weren't there (at least, not all of the time).
I acknowledge that Liberal Youth has performed well this year, and leadership inevitably has something to do with that. That doesn't change the story of the election campaign itself.
but think of all of the free food you get following Ros around
Anonymous,
Oh yes, the food has been good, and our hosts most generous. That said, it isn't exactly free.
My expenses to attend events are met from my own resources, I actually pay for tickets for quite a lot of the events anyway, and I'm a generous purchaser of raffle tickets. In all, being the Presidential consort has probably cost me about £6,000 this year. In terms of time and energy, I also give up a lot of my weekends travelling up and down the country, on top of holding down a full-time job.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge that in any way. However, I wouldn't want people to think that this is an endless freebie, because it isn't...
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