A bureaucrat in Istanbul (not Constantinole)

Conference is over, and it's time to escape the sunshine of Suffolk for something a little more exotic. And so, here I am in Istanbul. It was a pretty easy journey, the flight went smoothly, and the light rail and tram journey to the hotel worked out pretty well (my luggage is resting at the airport).

Today, I am having lunch with an contributor to the 'Axis of Evil' (as I lovingly call 'Liberal Vision'), Barry Stocker, who teaches at one of the city's universities. I may also try a little pampering - I'm worth it, after all.

More news as it comes in...

Blog of the Year Awards: James Graham acceptance speech

James won the BOTY for the best posting. For those of you of a sensitive disposition, I should warn that this clip contains 'adult' language...

Conference Day Three: (Not Quite) Everybody) Loves Vince

It was becoming apparent that the 'Mansion Tax' was causing something of a stir. Naturally, as an employee of HM Revenue & Customs, I wasn't going to be drawn on the subject, except to note that implementation would need to be handled sensitively - always advisable when you're trying something new.

That said, things still seemed to be going alright, even if the newspapers appeared to be at a rather different event.

It was a fairly quiet day for me, with not much formal business until the evening, when I attended the Lib Dem Friends of India event with Ros. Given that I'm half Indian, it seemed like the right place to be, and the newly arrived High Commissioner gave a pretty adroit speech, wishing us the very best of luck for the General Election, before noting that he would be conveying the same message to the other two Party Conferences he would be attending.

Ros left me to attend the Lib Dem Friends of Pakistan event which, rather predictably, clashed with the Indian one. I didn't go because, in truth, I was enjoying myself where I was. Given that the last time a member of my family had anything much to do with Pakistan was during the 1971 war (my uncle is a retired Indian Air Force Squadron Leader), I might not have been entirely welcome.

A good night out, and a nice prelude to the big day to come...

When Liberal Bureaucracy met Discworld...

I have met so many people at Conference this year, and you've all been really nice. However, a chance encounter allowed me to publish this...

Yes, this is Terry Pratchett. And yes, this is me. And yes, the photographer is the Party President, who made it possible. Richard Dawkins? Who's he, then?

Blog of the Year Awards: Slugger O'Toole

Forever the bridesmaid and never the bride, it fell to Stephen Glenn to collect the award for the best non-Lib Dem Blog.



At some point, it would be nice if Stephen won an award himself...

Blog of the Year Awards: Jo Swinson acceptance speech

It was Jo Swinson's day at the awards, winning the award for the best use of social networking, as well as being the subject of award-winningly impassioned defence by James Graham.

What impresses me is that a number of our MPs and councillors are willing to experiment with the new media in order to reach out and engage. In an era when 'safety first' is the watchword, and when small groups of obsessed anoraks feel the need to scrutinise everything that is said or written for possible contradiction, error or controversy, it is reassuring that there are some who are willing to exercise humour in their communication.

Conference Day 2: an award free zone

Well, the BOTYs ceremony, as we must now call it, went without too much controversy. Our compere for the evening, Stephen Tall, wearing a hat (indoors, dear boy?), a dazzlingly pink shirt and matching chest hair, kicked things off with an overview of Lib Dem blogging, leavened by a series of off-message but very funny jokes (note to self - check who writes Sarah Teather's jokes...).

I'm in the midst of uploading the acceptance speeches, so I won't comment on the winners here. However, what surprised me was the number of unfamiliar faces. Hitherto, I had thought that I knew most of the Lib Dem blogosphere. It turns out that I was apparently wrong.

On the other hand, I am still older than most of you, and that isn't likely to change any time soon...

Blog of the Year Awards: Mark Reckons acceptance speech

Never let it be said that I can't 'do' technology. And so, without further ado, my first video. Apologies for any camera shake - I was sober...

I admit to being surprised that Mark didn't win the award for best posting, having probably written the most successful 'weather making' posting I can recall. But then, winning any of the awards is an increasingly impressive achievement in any event...

Conference Day Two: the secret society meets

Sunday morning, far too early. I hadn't read my papers for English Candidates Committee the top secret Committee tasked with keeping you all in the dark over our plans for world domination, although I had left my cat at home so that you wouldn't suspect.

Of course, I did say that I wouldn't report on it, so I won't. Needless to say though that I didn't win the vote on my proposal, and you've all got another year before it'll be too late for you to stop us.

Nice chocolate and caramel square though...

Conference Day One: tales from the green room

And so, there I was for the beginning of Conference, having arrived a little early, and was talking to Annette Brooke, our MP for Dorset Mid and Poole North, who was due to open Conference. We chatted about how things were going and about what she was doing after Conference was over. I like Annette, and see her as one of the more unsung heroines. And yet she's a very sharp cookie indeed. To win the nomination to fight the seat was a challenge in itself, winning it was tough too, and yet she is still there.

Once the opening ceremony was done, it was time to go though, as the work of the First Husband is never done. Admittedly, my duties are rather less numerous this year, as I've been sacked as her minder - I really wasn't any good at it as I kept getting into conversations with people - and my replacements are fearfully good. So I visited the exhibition area, where I was waylaid by Colchester Lib Dems, who were selling chocolate. I had only intended to buy one bar, but made the mistake of handing over a fiver. So I ended up leaving with four bars, and a slightly emptier wallet. They're very good at selling things and I wouldn't want to be a Colchester Conservative...

The evening was occupied with the Rally, and a thank you to Chris Rennard, opened by Ros and compered by Sarah Teather, looking rather glamorous (no, she didn't pay me to write this). Admittedly, by the time she'd finished, she could write off any prospect of getting Christmas cards from Mark Oaten and Lembit Opik, amongst others, but she's got a future in standup comedy if the mood strikes her.

However, my evening had started earlier, after Ros had sent me a text asking if I could get some chocolate for her. As I texted back, funnily enough... And so I found myself in the green room prior to the rally. It's strange, in retrospect, but I've not exactly been conscious of how these things work. As a bureaucrat, I tend to assume that my job is to ensure that things can happen, and not take that much interest in what actually does.

In the green room, makeup is being applied, speakers are reading their speeches one last time, microphones are being fitted, and there is a general buzz of nervous energy. You do sort of assume that they've all done this a thousand times but, actually, it isn't like that at all. It's the little routines that make it easier and, when they don't happen, you can be put off of your stride. And so it was last night, as the expected quick walkthrough dematerialised. As I said to Nick (yes, that one) and Charles as I left them, "Don't worry, you've done this a hundred times. And the fact that you'll be performing on a specially greased revolving platform shouldn't put you off for a moment...". Charles's cheery "Bugger off!" echoing in my ears, I made my way to the First Husband's seat.

And wasn't Charles amazing? He was in fantastic form, a reminder of exactly why the Party voted him leader in the first place (yes, I know, I voted for David Rendel...). Funny, passionate and erudite, he was a tough act for Nick to follow. But Nick was up to the job, and showed all the skills I had counted on when I voted for him in 2007. It wasn't an easy choice, and he had his problems in the first year, but he has blossomed into the role.

It was, I think, a good way to start things off. The emotional sendoff for Chris Rennard was an occasion for genuine warmth and, whilst I have been on the wrong end of his political skills on the only occasion when it really mattered, even then I could find time to admire the skill with which my proposal was semi-thwarted. Sitting next to him as I was, I was struck by how much his reception meant to him, and how strongly felt was the idea that we owed him for the work he has done over so many years. As a Party, we're not always good at saying thank you, and we tend to take some people for granted, but regardless of how individuals think about Chris, his influence has been huge. After all, how many people get to have an 'ism' named after them?

The Rally having rather overrun, it was then a hectic dash to visit some of the receptions. I made it to the Exhibitors and Sponsors reception (good food), the East of England (good company) and the First Timers (and to think I was one once!), before heading back to the room for some well-deserved sleep...

Be very afraid: bureaucrat with gadget alert

You just have that 'Eureka' moment sometimes. And mine was flicking that little switch on the memory card... As Jennie would put it, "Mwah ha ha ha..."

It's 5 p.m. and you still have time to get away...

Conference Day One: a bureaucrat steps out

Alright, I was now up for Conference but the finishing touches were missing. Yes, it was time to go shopping. Fortified by a list from Ros, and with jaw pointed towards the town centre, I set off in search of stuff.

For myself, I had a suit in mind and, as I strolled through the sunlit gardens, a thought stirred. A hat is what a liberal bureaucrat should have - a proper hat, not something garish or silly, or even practical, just something elegant. And so I searched. I picked up most of the things that Ros needed - where do you find sage in Bournemouth? - before turning to me. The suit was easy but a hat? I tried Debenhams - useless. Dingles? Actually, no hat, but I did find some costume jewellery for Ros.

Fortunately, Bournemouth has Beales, a proper department store. I found Nick (no, not that one!) in the menswear department and noted the apparent absence of hats. He very kindly led me towards a small selection, none of which were what I had in mind, a point I noted. "What sort of hat do you have in mind?", he asked. "I don't know,", I replied, "something like a panama, I suppose, but with a wider brim.". "I think that I have the very thing...", and he disappeared, returning with a small, but perfectly formed selection. Amongst them was exactly what I had been looking for.

So, I am now the possessing of a rather splendid hat, which came in rather handy in yesterday's warm sunshine. It will next travel to India, where it might be worth its weight in gold...

Conference Day Zero: Friday night surprises

Alright, Mark, time to buck up. After all, it's only a Liberal Democrat conference, full of old friends and other assorted nice people. So, make the best of it, smile sweetly and hum a happy tune. And that was how it ended up. It was a very good start to run into Joanne Foster, supremo of the Welsh Lib Dems, and then David Allworthy, an old friend, both of whom were nice to me.

And it just got better and better. Dinner with Chris and Steph White, a bottle of wine and some lively conversation and all of a sudden, it was Conference, and it was going to be just fine...

A bureaucrat ascends the scaffold...

And to the strains of Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35, I am bound for Bournemouth, for the opening of Federal Conference. The closer it gets, the less I really want to be there, as it increasingly represents something to be survived before I can return to the rest of my life.

My personal Conference highlights are likely to be the opening and close of Conference, the Rally and the bit before the debate on the pre-manifesto. I admit that they might have one important thing in common but, hey, I'm as biased as all hell. Apart from that, I've got an critical meeting of English Candidates Committee, and will spend the rest of the time trying to learn how my new camcorder works and wondering why some people are so annoying.

And so roll on Conference, roll on...

Conference: go back to Bournemouth and prepare to be perplexed

I've always had mixed feelings about Federal Conference. Years of being a wallflower amongst the 'beautiful people' (MPs, Peers, MEPs, PPCs, council group leaders and the like) have made the whole experience a rather fraught one. In the past, I tended to shuffle around Conference, huddling for social warmth with old friends, whilst everybody else rushed around, apparently part of some heady social whirl from which I was excluded.

Retiring from active politics twice probably didn't help, and being a bureaucrat didn't help either. To be honest, the Party only notices its secretaries, treasurers, returning officers and the like when something goes wrong, and then the attention is unlikely to be positive. Even the long service awards tend to go to campaigners and councillors.

And so I would potter around the venue, looking slightly perplexed, and never really enjoy myself. Until last year, that was. Last year, the faceless bureaucrat was unmasked in the midst of the maelstrom that was the Presidential contest. Suddenly, from being relatively unnoticed, I had a profile, and not an altogether welcome one. Given that I am in many ways rather shy, and notoriously poor at self-promotion, suddenly being one of the front guys for the campaign was a bit of a shock to the system. It wasn't easy, and the sense of being under a microscope didn't help.

This time, it will probably be different. I won't see as much of Ros as I might like, especially as she has a fairly intense schedule. On the other hand, I've met so many people in the past year, virtually all of whom have been really kind, it will be nice to touch base with them again.

My focus at Conference is rather different too. Having become a parish councillor, deep in the heart of the countryside, I have a steep learning curve. There will be rural receptions, training on PagePlus and EARS, and all the other stuff that I'll be able to take back to Creeting St Peter for use later in my campaign for 2011.

I suspect that I'll still be looking perplexed though. So if you see me reach for my jacket pocket and look bemused, you'll know that I've missed an appointment. Just point me in the direction of the bar, and don't let me cross any roads unsupervised, and I'm sure that it will be alright...

See you there?

Why you still don't know what Party Committees are up to (part 5) - ghosts in my machine…

There will be those who will suggest that I am calling for the various committees to be exempted from criticism, that communication should be unidirectional. Far from it, far from it. The problem is, as I have described, a multi-faceted one. However, if the relationship between reporter and audience becomes, or is even perceived to be, one of abuser and victim, the desire to communicate will be extinguished. Yes, be persistent in your questioning but also be grateful for what you get, lest it be lost.

As I said at the time, you break it, you pay for it. And I’m afraid that, with every passing day, we pay for the inability of some to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around a particularly small minority…

Why you still don't know what Party Committees are up to (part 4) - is there an easy answer to the dilemma?

For anyone else considering using a blog to reach out to interested parties, it makes for a depressing spectacle. If the outcome is to provide a platform for rather aggressive, insistent and often ill-informed criticism, why put yourself through it? Given that most committee hands are doing it with the aim of achieving an improvement in how the Party operates, and give up their own time, and money, to do it, you might understand why such personalised criticism hurts all the more.

I haven’t forgotten the individual who accused me of being a ‘lackey of my wife’. The fact that their criticism was wildly inaccurate and born of a total ignorance of my record within the Party didn’t make it any less painful. It made my decision to withdraw from the field of internal party debate much easier though, and so another source of information is lost. It hurts me not at all but, unfortunately, someone somewhere may miss out on information that I would otherwise have freely given and might have been valuable to them. Worse still, I know that there is nobody likely to take my place any time soon.

In the midst of the debate, Oranjepan suggested that committee secretaries might report via a group blog. In principle, this might work but, unfortunately, there is a catch. Secretaries are not word perfect and their interpretation of a debate might not be wholly accurate, which is why minutes are approved at a subsequent meeting and not before. Until those minutes are agreed, any statement made is merely provisional. Often, perspectives of a meeting can vary wildly, depending on what the agenda of the commentator is. Most of us are not above spinning the decisions taken at a meeting to support our stance or to condemn that of an opponent, so whose opinion can you really rely upon?

Another problem is that most people don’t like to blog. Either you want to, or you don’t, and if an individual doesn’t, how do you make them? Do they have a duty to a small corps of bloggers, to their direct stakeholders, to State, Regional and/or Local Party Officers? It might surprise some reading this to know that, in some quarters, the blogosphere is not thought to be reflective of the membership, or even worth engaging with unless they want something from us. Indeed, the more we demand, the more adherents that stance attracts.

There is also the inconvenient fact that, for some, their words are scrutinised far beyond the activist base of the Party. Our opponents and the media don’t care much about our squabbles. On the other hand, if an MP, Peer or other senior figure commits a faux pas, it will be recorded and potentially used against us, just as we do to errant opponents. As an example, Nadine Dorries take vast amounts of flak because of her blog and, whilst she holds many views we as liberals can disagree with, she is communicating. It isn’t doing her prospects of advancement much good though, and both Labour and ourselves are enthusiastic in using her as a stick to beat her Party with, evidently causing some concern to the Conservative whips.

Finally, the whole point of blogging is that it is interactive, or it is nothing. If most committee members don’t blog, don’t engage with the blogosphere, in short, have lives, and do not respond immediately, or even at all, will they be criticised? You bet they will and, like I did, would probably withdraw back into their collective shells.

Tomorrow, in summary...

Guilty of looking at the government in a funny way

The new Independent Safeguarding Authority marks another stage in the Labour Party's attempts to fracture our society into one where individuals fear each other. That we have come to such a point where ferrying the local kids, one or more of whom might be yours, to their Scout meeting requires you to apply for Government 'approval' is, to be blunt, yet another nail in the coffin of community.

It appears that we are, as Mark Thompson puts it, dangerous until proven safe. Now pardon me, but isn't it a basic tenet of English law that we are innocent until proven guilty? Not anymore, it seems. Now, the government, supported by people like the Children's Society (who should know better, frankly), have decided that, because a small number of people have slipped through the net, some of whom were under suspicion but not charged, everyone who is involved with 'regulated activity' must register with the new Authority.

Now, bear in mind that this legislation was part of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which might imply that this legislation wasn't exactly urgent. But it's worse than that. Here's the definition of 'regulated activity';

Regulated activity is any activity which involves contact with children or vulnerable adults. This could be paid or voluntary work.
Such activities include:
·       Any activity of a specified nature which involves contact with children or vulnerable adults frequently, intensively and/or overnight.
·       Any activity allowing contact with children or vulnerable adults that is in a specified place frequently or intensively.
·       Fostering and childcare.
·       Any activity that involves people in certain defined positions of responsibility.

Is it me, or is that a bit on the vague side? There will be a rather more precise definition somewhere, right?

Why you still don't know what Party committees are up to (part 3) - so what went wrong?

Somebody once said that pop will eat itself, and I fear that this is true of blogging. In truth, that element of the leadership, national or regional, that is even aware of the blogosphere think of us as self-indulgent, irresponsible and with a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. I exclude the many councillors amongst us, most of whom are reaching out to their electorate first and the Lib Dem blogosphere second. However, most of the rest of us aren’t actually responsible for that much, and claim the freedom to comment as we please.

And I have to admit, dispiriting as it might sound, I am beginning to see what they mean. Oh yes, I might fool myself that my opinions on Labour policy, MP expenses or Irfan Ahmed might influence someone somewhere, but isn’t it somewhat arrogant of me to think that my views actually matter? Approximately sixty to seventy people read my blog each day, hardly an audience to trouble the ‘big boys’ of blogging.

Worse still, keeping a blog is a bit like owning a cat, in that it requires attention and feeding if it is to be done well. Like e-mail, it creates a sense and, worse still an expectation, of immediacy. Either you’re willing and able to respond to that sense, or you’re not, and clearly most people aren’t. That doesn’t seem to register with some of us, and the Rennard expenses debate demonstrated it in abundance.

I won’t address the substance of the debate - there is no point at this stage, and my comments, if only a personal opinion, would risk interpretation through the prism of my personal relationship with the Party President. However, an expectation on immediate comment was created which, in truth, was never going to happen. The situation was too fast moving, there was too much uncertainty, and the external interest in the story was too sensitive to risk publishing an incomplete picture.

Of course, the irony that, having not had any reports pre-2009 on the actions of the Federal Executive, reports were being provided by the Chair of the Federal Executive within ninety-six hours, was lost on those suddenly determined to form a lynch mob on the basis of a report from a newspaper not exactly renown for its friendliness to liberal democracy. It simply wasn’t good enough that the President might want to reflect upon her response. And so, she withdrew.

I freely admit to regrets. I have always believed that keeping members informed of my activities as a Party apparatchik was something of a duty. After all, I’ve been elected by (some of) you, and you deserve to know what I’m doing. At the same time, I have been treated with some suspicion by my fellow committee members, some of whom are quite contemptuous of the idea of blogging. I have occasionally been critical of the inability of some to remember who we serve and, in return, they have indicated doubts as to my discretion. However, I had attempted to balance the opposing views in my reporting.

Almost inevitably, those few of us who have attempted to square that political circle have, eventually, suffered for it. The only other member of the current Federal Executive who maintains a blog is Duncan Borrowman, who has studiously eschewed the opportunity to discuss committee business, despite temptation. His ‘reward’ was to be taunted by Agent Orange, and then Sara Scarlett, in an attempt to lure him into an indiscretion. The use of language calculated to cause embarrassment to Duncan and attract the attention of local media to his rather uncomfortable predicament might well have been a valid strategy from the perspective of someone trying to gain information otherwise unavailable, but it hardly encourages anyone to engage in public debate, or to communicate more widely.

Depressing, no? Tomorrow, I'll consider whether or not there is a viable solution...

Why you still don't know what Party committees are up to (part 2) - a brief, personal history of ‘reporting back’ via blogging

Curiously, blogging, as a reporting medium, has been decidedly underused, given its relative simplicity. I blogged on events on the London Regional Executive from the point when I started ‘Liberal Bureaucracy’ in late 2005. I tended to be fairly cautious, as much because of my own innate sense of discretion, as a deep and abiding suspicion amongst many of my senior colleagues.

The next year, I joined the English Candidates Committee, having been directly elected by English Council. Naturally, I covered events there, making sure that, where I was expressing an opinion, this was made abundantly clear. Otherwise, if discussions took place which impacted more widely, I sought clearance from the Chair to publish.

On the Regional Executive, I wasn’t the only blogger. Susanne Lamido was already reporting on events, without much restraint and, occasionally, accuracy. Her stance was that it was all about freedom of speech. It would be fair to say that she was in a pretty small minority and I found myself torn between disclosure and discretion. There was evidence that individuals were withholding their opinions on controversial issues for fear of having those views broadcast to a wider audience, especially where there was a contradiction between the Regional position and that of their Local Party - not that unusual.

Of course, the blog was one of the factors which led to the revocation of her membership, and my reputation suffered by association. In 2007, there was an attempt to remove me as Regional Secretary, on the grounds that my discretion was suspect. There was no evidence that this was the case, except that I had a blog. It was most dispiriting and, even though I survived by the skin of my teeth, it was never as much fun after that.

Meanwhile, there was little in the way of reporting back from the Federal Executive, which, given the absence of bloggers in senior positions, came as no great surprise. There was certainly little in the way of official reporting, and if you wanted a glimpse of how decisions were taken, you were reliant on Liberal Democrat News - hardly a source of controversial and dogged investigative reporting.

Of course, in 2008, a contest for the Party Presidency emerged. Ros had been campaigning for the role for some time, and Lembit had always made his intension to run abundantly clear. The use of the new media was an area of some debate, and Ros’s commitment to use technology to reach out to members was certainly attractive. Her election, the first non-leadership internal party election to take place in an era of ‘mass’ blogging, set the bar by which some would later judge.

Tomorrow, I'll look at what went wrong in Camelot...