Anna Pascoe, South West Devon Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, went to the Lib Dem conference in Birmingham this week, and picked up the slogan ‘The way we got in to this mess is not the way out’, which is about politics, not the second city’s one way system.
Monday, March 8
The week kicked off with a busy day at work planning for everyone’s favourite Staff Training over the next couple of days. Then it was a training session for the Plymouth Round Table run, followed by a much-needed haircut, before settling down for some casework emails in the evening.
Tuesday, March 9
A super-early start for a team campaign meeting followed by getting out and about in Plympton and Plymstock and chatting to residents. Was sad to see that the wall outside Plymstock Library had been vandalised and there was also evidence of drinking and drug-taking in Hooe Lake play area. Over in Plympton the news was not much better, with the dangerous broken paving in Mudge Way car park STILL unrepaired, months after I first reported it to Plymouth City Council.
The council has the powers to deal with anti-social behaviour, but it is not using them. It shouldn’t take email after email from a parliamentary candidate to get the council to do something as basic as mend broken paving!
Wednesday, March 10
A long but fruitful day at the staff training at work. Endeavoured to make the session as interactive as possible, although as usual with these things, I think everyone’s favourite part of the day was the lunch break! Hit the gym after work for some more training and then worked on leaflets for the Plymouth City Council elections in the evening.
Thursday, March 11
An early start to working on emails and trying to get everything ready before going to the Lib Dem Conference the following day, before catching up on things at work too. The best laid plans of leaving at a fairly decent time were abruptly brought to a halt when I discovered, on submitting the final draft of the hotel’s entry to the Observer Ethical Awards, that there was a second page of questions that came up once the first answers had been submitted! After a couple of hours of overtime, I’d got the second page of questions sorted, and was very relieved that a third page didn’t pop up once those were submitted! Fingers crossed now, winners due to be announced in May…
Friday, March 12
Got through some paperwork and a gym training session in the morning, as just over a week to go until the Plympton charity 10k. It was very sad then to have the funeral of my old Sunday School teacher to attend. A great Paralympian and truly inspirational man, Brian Lessiter touched many lives and will be missed by people far and wide.
I spent the drive to Birmingham reflecting on memories of Brian, his good nature and kindness to one and all and so the first night of the Lib Dem conference was a rather more sombre affair than usual, although nice to catch up with old friends.
Saturday, March 13
Rose early to a bright sunny day in Birmingham, and prepared my statement of support to send to the public meeting in Ivybridge working against Viridor’s proposed incinerator application at Lee Mill. After some more work on literature for the election campaign, I walked in to the city centre in the spring sunshine for a day of debating policy and catching up with colleagues at the Spring Conference. One of Birmingham’s famed curries at the delightfully-named Bombay Mix for dinner, and then chatting with friends about the camapigns in our respective areas followed.
Sunday, March 14
The week drew to a close with a rousing session at the Lib Dem conference. Nick Clegg’s Leader’s speech reminded us to campaign for a fair deal for local voters, above everything else and to make sure that changes brought about would work for ordinary people. ‘The way we got in to this mess is not the way out’ is one of my favourite Lib Dem messages – the legacy of the last Conservative government is not something to repeat for the sake of getting rid of Labour.
After a weekend of politics, a nice outdoor training run as the dusk drew in awaited and I even ran up one of my least favourite hills. Looking forward to the real run next week.
Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!
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