at the grass roots

[ramtops]

so we went to our first local LibDem meeting last night.

we are the Rural sub-branch of the Woodspring constituency (all hail, Liam Fox!), and the meeting was held in the house of the indefatigable Angela, who seems to give all her time to such things, as does her husband David.

there were seven of us there - the aforementioned Angela and Dave, the "unofficial" chairman (don't ask), a chap who used to be LibDem leader of the local county council, ourselves, and another brand new recruit, aged about 21, who was fallen upon with cries of glee as fresh young blood.

there are clearly many opportunities locally - in the course of the evening, I seem to have been:

• invited to stand as an LEA school governor for the local primary school; I might actually do this as it is, literally, just round the corner, and it might be somewhere where I could do something which is useful
• "oh - you can use a computer, can't you?", the inevitable cry ... so I have borne away the latest EARS cd, which seems to be the Cowley Street organisational software, showing the local electoral roll, voter patterns, delivery routes, etc. And I just know that I'm going to lumbered with running this, not just for our little local sub-branch, but for the constituency, as apparently the chap who does that now doesn't like doing it. My protestations that I don't use Windows fell on stony ground
• we could even have the opportunity to go to Conference as a voting member this year, if not in the spring, then in the autumn - now that might be nice
• perlmonger and I were fixed with Angela's beady eye as the subject of the annual Sausage and Mash and Quiz night came up. Or, more specifically, the subject of the Mash element of this. I think we're doomed here - it'll be peelers at the ready, and no amount of explaining that we never peel our spuds for mash is going to help. I did say this was politics right at the potato grass roots, didn't I?
• the last, and most astonishing, was being asked to consider standing as a local councillor in 2007. I'm almost 100% sure I won't do this, for all sorts of reasons.
  
  • I really don't have any experience at all
  • I think it would take way too much time - there's only two of us to keep the business going
  • the thought of campaigning fills me with dread - me? go out and talk to strangers?
  but, after thinking about it some more overnight, I'm going to think about it some more. I *want* to get involved, I want to do something that contributes, I want to get out of the house.
  
  so we'll see ...