European Selection: watching... and waiting... and hoping...

For those gallant few pursuing selection for the European lists, we've entered something of a period of limbo. If a General Election is called, the process is suspended, and the work already done may or may not impact on the views of members. Worse still, it isn't exactly clear when the process would resume... So, how hard do you campaign?

Saturday sees scheduled hustings in Bethnal Green (for London) and Eastleigh (for South East). Do we cancel, do we proceed? It's all up to Gordon and his dance of the seven veils in any event. As an apparatchik, my life is simple. Carry on as normal until told otherwise, so I'm continuing to field questions, talk to candidates and plan as though nothing untoward was happening.

And yet I have this overwhelming urge to become a lumberjack, to stride from tree to tree through the forests of British Columbia, with an axe in my hand and my gal by my side. There may even be some wild flowers that need pressing. In short, I'm having existential doubts about being a bureaucrat, not a particularly helpful thing to be happening at this time of year, when nominations for Party office are due and plans for the year to come are being made.

It is healthy to consider why you do things from time to time, and we so often fail to stop and smell the metaphorical flowers. Am I attempting to do too much and, if so, what elements are easiest to drop or least entertaining? Or perhaps I need time off to renew my enthusiasm for all things Liberal Democrat?

One thing that I do know is that my connections to Dulwich & West Norwood lapse at the end of the year. My house move complete, and Federal Conference passed, I have arranged for my membership to be reallocated to Borough of Brent and this has been done (thanks to the gentlemen in Membership Services who made it happen).

So, what do I do now? Well, I'm a member of:

• Joint States Membership Committee
• English Council
• English Candidates Committee
• London Region Executive Committee (as Secretary)
• London Region Candidates Committee
• London Region Finance and Administration Committee (ex-officio as Regional Secretary)
• London Region Conference Committee
• Borough of Brent Executive Committee (as Secretary)
• Dulwich & West Norwood Executive Committee (as Membership Secretary)
• ADA Resolutions Committee

I also act as a parliamentary candidate assessor and Returning Officer at Westminster and European levels, regional contact to Beckenham, Bexley Borough, Bromley and Chislehurst and Orpington Local Parties.

Perhaps I am overcommitted, and perhaps a rethink is needed. Of course, I do need to get re-elected to a great many of these posts in the meantime, so I can't take anything for granted. So let's see how things go, and wait for Gordon to throw a spanner in the works...