It's just one Liberal Democrat thing after another at the moment...

I seem to be popular, and thus busy, at the moment, thanks to my beloved Party. First the by-election, which took up most of May. Then, the aborted European Parliamentary selections - we were just five days of publishing the advert when the process was finally abandoned just days after the Referendum. Next came the snap General Election that might never be, and the job of Senior Returning Officer for my Regional Party. And now that that's pretty much out of the way, I've got the International Relations Committee to take care of.

That isn't all, of course. I have my responsibilities as Treasurer to the Mid Suffolk Local Party, and as Chair of the County Approval Panel, as a member of the ALDE Party's Financial Advisory Committee and, closer to home, as a Parish Councillor.

It all takes time, and effort, and energy. And, as I get older, it gets a little harder to find time, make that effort, preserve that energy.

And yet, without my contribution, the burden of making a political party work would fall on an even smaller number of people, all of whom have lives, jobs, other responsibilities. It seems churlish, if one is really serious about building a meaningful civic society, not to do what one can to support it.

Of course, there are professionals who hold the whole thing together. Not as many of them as the public, and even seasoned political activists, might think, and they are often taken for granted or even abused by people who should know better. I've never wanted to be one, probably for that reason. I prefer my amateur status, and with it the ability to say no, even if I don't do that very often.

It never ceases to be amaze me how much of the Party's processes rely, as a result, in the goodwill of those willing to give of their time for a cause which can be decidedly ungrateful. Returning Officers, Regional Party Executive members, Secretaries at every level, all utterly unglamorous but necessary, and often delivered by people who have plenty of other roles to perform.

And, as politics becomes more confrontational, and the stakes get higher, the demands on the Party bureaucracy grow. More process, new process, more challenges, less patience. Less tolerance of individual limitations, more demands on less resource. Was it ever thus?

Ah well, back to work, I guess...