A decade of blogging - an anchor of constancy in an ever-changing world

courtesy of Cake Central

Amazing when you think of it, that I've managed to keep this blog going for ten years. There aren't many of us in the Liberal Democrat arm of the spiral galaxy that is the blogosphere that have - hats off to Jonathan Calder (4 March 2004) and Stephen Glenn (2 July 2005), both of whom are veterans compared to me (you both look better for it than I do, darlings...) who are, along with Peter Black and Stephen Tall, probably the most prominent (thankfully, Mr Tall isn't always prominent, know what I mean?).

But, here we are, nearly three thousand posts and ten years on and, apart from the blogging and the liberal democracy, virtually everything that I knew then is a distant memory.

Yes, I have done a lot of travelling. And yes, there has been an awful lot of liberal democracy - two Regions, four Local Parties, English Council, English Candidates Committee, ALDE, Liberal International, to name but some.

On the other hand, I started a South Londoner, a city dweller to my fingertips, and now I live in a small village deep in the Suffolk countryside. In 2005, I was technically divorced but not actually free, yet I am now married to the incredible Ros, and have been for more than seven years (it doesn't feel like that, especially given how much we've managed to pack in). I changed job, moved from administration to compliance, got promoted (mostly due to Ros's persistence in persuading me to apply, it must be said).

I've discovered life as a parish councillor, been the Presidential consort, had a box seat at the formation of the Coalition and met an astonishing array of interesting and entertaining people. Admittedly, quite a lot of this I haven't been able to blog about, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. I have traveled to every continent, except Antarctica, at least twice (and don't rule out Antarctica - we like penguins).

In short, life has been curiously eventful given that this blog was originally intended as a means to keep my family informed as to what I was doing, and to tell tales of party bureaucracy.

Will things continue to change as such a pace over the next decade? I very much hope not. But things will continue to be eventful, I trust, and, hopefully, you'll be able to come back in another decade and find me still here, still telling tales of travel, village life and the trials and tribulations of a liberal bureaucrat.

Finally, thank you, gentle reader, for the occasional word of encouragement, or comment. It is nice to be told that someone has read the words here, and enjoyed them, or been moved to think. Here at 'Liberal Bureaucracy', we don't tend towards hyperbole, or anger. That doesn't really suit your author anyway, but I am aware that such things 'sell'. I promise not to change much...