Kickstart 2012...

Yes, it's that time of the electoral cycle when councillors start to think about getting re-elected, and the enthusiastic start thinking about how they might get elected. In other words, time for Kickstart!

Now you may be wondering, why is Mark talking about this? After all, there aren't elections in Mid Suffolk next year, and the County isn't up until 2013. So, obviously, I'm at a Kickstart event... in Perth... sitting next to Caron Lindsay.

Alright, time to be honest. I am at a Kickstart event, in Perth, and I am sitting next to Caron Lindsay, but it is all rather accidental. You see, Ros has spent the last two days visiting BBC Scotland, so it seemed logical to spend the weekend up here. Ros posted on Facebook that she was in Scotland and, almost immediately, word of Kickstart came back.

Given that we're staying in Perth, the opportunity to drop in and say hello was pretty tempting - we still like you all, after all - so here we are. And it's very nice.

Having faced the electorate in May, and having watched from afar as our Scottish colleagues took a thorough kicking, expectations for 2012 are muted. That said, there's a good crowd here, they're in pretty good humour, and there's a sense of almost bloody-minded determination to carry the Liberal Democrat banner, come what may. I'm therefore confident that, regardless of the outcome next year, they'll have given it their best shot.

And for those of you south of the border with elections in 2012 who haven't booked for Kickstart in Birmingham (25-27 November), why not go to the ALDC website and register now?...
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