Participating fully at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Bournemouth hearing the debates, joining an Ears election software meeting and then an ASLDC meeting in the evening which had Paddy Ashdown and others as key speakers in a most good-humoured and motivating session.
Unfortunately, I had differences with our PPC Sue Sutton who wanted more effort on her parliamentary election rather than my council work even though she had no chance of winning.
Another nice hotel breakfast at the start of the day and by now we were both worrying about our waistlines. Today I left Di to go shopping in the morning before taking an open-topped bus trip in the afternoon whilst I spent my second full day at the conference. I watched some debates in the morning and then had my midday rendezvous with the others and immediately got into a dispute with Sue who was all for arranging a special meeting next week about her campaign. She had been in private briefing meetings with Election Unit Campaign Director Des Wilson and others who had again been exhorting her to get on and be ready for the possibility of a November election. My meetings with the council group meetings were, on the other hand, full of the necessity to ensure that our local government plans were not eclipsed by spending too much thought and resources on parliamentary elections that were out of our reach to win.
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I had also already agreed with the others that our next parliamentary campaign meeting was not until the following week by which time we had to have achieved particular action items and therefore had not the time nor inclination to start panicking. My view is that we only stand a chance of winning S.W.Cambs (and a slim one at that) if we have the extra time by way an election next spring/summer to build up our organisation. We should therefore only plan a target campaign in time for that. Although I understand Sue wanting to do as well as possible in an earlier election, I also have my other priorities. Eventually Sue agreed to stick to our timetable if we have prepared reports and actions achieved but we parted in poor humour and, not for the first time, I feel that we are getting fed up with each other.
She went off to more private briefings and I to my hotel prior to the EARS software meeting. I took a buffet lunch at the only fringe meeting to be taking place at the Royal Bath (which was a reception and discussion with a teachers' union on education policy) and then found the EARS meeting quite valuable. I went back to the conference hall after to hear the last of the debates for the day. Back to the hotel after for another swim with Diana in the pool and some tea by way of room service in our room. I left her to see some more television and went back to the Highcliffe Conference Hotel for another ASLDC event - the rally; which had Paddy Ashdown and others as key speakers in a most good-humoured and motivating session.
I left before the "Glee Club" that followed and once back at the hotel, I found Diana asleep and so turned on the television softly and watched some sport until midnight brought a cooler and quieter environment for sleeping. The weather had stayed hot again today and the main news all this week was of street riots in the North-East amongst the housing estates with high unemployment where the youths had been attacking public buildings and burning them to the ground.