Sunday, May 20, 2007

It's not just about meetings...

The advantage of being a single faceless bureaucrat is that you can accept invitations without having to consider what your loved one has to say first. I've also discovered that, as you become better known, you tend to receive a greater volume of invitations.

One emerging set of entries in my diary are the monthly 'Liberal Drinks' events organised by the ever entertaining James Graham in a Whitehall pub. I'm not a regular by any means but these events offer an opportunity to debate issues and intrigue in a convivial setting. Occasionally, someone unexpected turns up to enliven the discussion or say something thought-provoking but regardless, I always benefit from the opportunity. Wednesday night saw another of these events and I made my way to Westminster accordingly.

I was delighted to see Adrian Sanders there. I've known Adrian for about twenty years although to describe him as any more than a distant acquaintance would be a huge exaggeration, but I took the opportunity to commiserate with him over the fate of his beloved Gulls, relegated to the Conference a few weeks ago. If there is anyone who thinks that he only cares because he is the MP for Torbay, I can assure them that he has been a stalwart for many years. In fact, I can remember a conversation at a time when he was working in Hebden Bridge for the Association of Liberal Councillors when I remarked about how difficult it must be being so far from Plainmoor. His response was that with the number of northern teams in Division Four, he saw almost as many games there as he would have done in Torquay!

On Thursday, I met with an old friend for dinner in a Soho restaurant that my father favours. Both of us are deeply involved in politics, her in an elected capacity, me as a bureaucrat, her on a full-time basis, me in what is laughingly described as my spare time. I've always had tremendous respect for her and it was somewhat unlike me to have the 'audacity' to invite her at all.

On the other hand, one wonders what life is like in the more rarified heights of politics, and it dawns on me that it might be quite lonely. Everyone assumes that politicians are incredibly busy people, but even they must need a social life, an outlet for all of the other things in their lives that interest them, or that they care about.

It was a really enjoyable evening, and a chance to catch up after far too long, and perhaps we'll have the chance to do it again some time.

Saturday was spent marking application forms for today's assessment day and I was quite proud of myself for getting the job done by mid-afternoon - I've been known to be found finishing them off at three in the morning - and even prouder after I'd managed to draw up the draft Regional Plan, an induction pack of new members of the Regional Executive and reproduced my proposals for a communications strategy for the Region.

My reward, a guilt-free evening celebrating the birthdays of Peter Facey and his lovely wife, Amande. Peter is an old colleague of mine from our days in the Young Liberal Democrats and we both had the exceptional good fortune to be International Officer in the early nineties. Nowadays, Peter is director of the New Politics Network, a thinktank which does sterling work in campaigning for a better democracy.

I was a little confused to arrive at the restaurant on time, and find myself alone apart from a former teaching colleague of Amande's, especially as being on time is not one of my strong points. However, eventually, we all found the Lebanese restaurant and enjoyed a very good meal indeed, washed down with some decent wine and leavened with some lively conversation. With councillors from Brent, Kingston and Lambeth gathered around the table, there was a significant political element to the discussion, and it was interesting to hear perspectives from councillors in power and in opposition.

Unfortunately, one of the side conversations was about 2010. Having successfully body swerved all invitations to run for a serious seat in Southwark, I may well have been sweet-talked into a possible campaign in Brent. Hmmm... looks like I've got some serious thinking to do... and even more delivering...

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