It seems as though every Regional Conference has been debating the tuition fees question this Autumn, and whilst South Central were passing a motion supporting existing policy in Oxford on Saturday morning, the East of England had saved their debate for the afternoon session in Huntingdon. This was useful from a personal perspective, as I was starting the day with Ros in the Festival Hall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where the East Midlands were meeting.
Ros was scheduled to kick things off with a speech and a question and answer session, and it turned out to be a fairly feisty one. It is slightly strange to be operating in an environment where many present are campaigning for one or other of your putative successors, but I think that it has freed Ros up to be a little more direct. Handy really, as there were questions which expressed frustration rather more than fact, but I understand that frustration.
The transition from (relatively) well-resourced opposition to rather more resource-impoverished Government has been shown up by the initial breakdown in communication. Yes, it has improved, but perhaps the intimacy of our past arrangements, and the fact that communications from the centre are scrutinised by the national media in a way that they weren't previously encourages authors to err on the side of caution.
All in all though, it went well, and the East Midlands said goodbye to Ros with warm applause. And then we were off in search of the M1 southbound...
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