European Selection Diary: Day 15 - it's so much easier being the Chair of the Shortlisting Committee...

Five years ago, I was juggling three 'activities' at once, being Returning Officer for the South East European candidate selection, serving on the London European selection committee and... dating Ros. Yes, we'd been seeing each other for about a week by now, and I was attempting to burn the candle at both ends and the middle.

I have to admit that chairing the shortlisting committee is rather easier, as I have nothing really to do now, and all of the work is in the hands of our Returning Officer, who doesn't appear to have much to say for now.

So, we've gone to Latitude, courtesy of the BBC. And no, it isn't a freebee, as Ros is here to be on Pienaar's People, on Radio 5 Live at 7.30. Well, I suppose that it's a freebee for me, because I'm only here because Ros is. But I did navigate her here successfully...

And, unusually, the sun is shining, albeit intermittently, and Simple Minds are performing in the Obelisk Arena. I admit that I was always more of a Hue and Cry man myself, but the slightly more mature crowd appear to be enjoying themselves well enough and the mosh pit appears to be pretty packed - at least I assume it's a mosh pit, we really don't have such things at Snape for string quartets.

Interestingly, somewhere out there is Therese Coffey, the Conservative MP for Suffolk Coastal, who is, it seems, a Simple Minds fan. I shall eschew the obvious gag... but feel free to carry on without me...