Richard Baum

41 hours into the new year, and the meeting-arama that is my life is back in full swing.

This evening I attended a meeting of the Bury Lib Dem Council group to talk about priorities for the new year and start thinking about the important things for the party in the next four months. It is scary not only for my colleagues and I in general, but in particular for the frailty of my sensibilities that the next election is now less than four months away… There’s a lot of work to be done. Leaflets don’t write, print or deliver themselves. Which is one of life’s cruellest injustices.

I am pleased with our record of success on things like Rainsough, the Children’s Centre, the Village, blue bin recycling, year-round action and support to tenants and residents across the ward. There’s always more to be done, and I’m not resting on my laurels, but I am reasonably proud of my first 8 months. Unfortunately our political opponents disagree. Some with fire-spitting fury bordering on the insane. And so we have to convince them. And convince them we will.

After the meeting I stuck around to put the finishing touches to a presentation I am part-delivering next Monday at the inaugural Bury Lib Dem Executive meeting of 2008. All local party members are welcome, so please do get in touch if you want to find out more about where and when. I was very proud of the first draft, with its little Powerpoint “Bird of Liberty” watermark on each slide. Unfortunately each subsequent edit renders the template useless, and sees me striving with every frenzied sinew of my being not to hurl the laptop at the wall in rage. Bill Gates may have revolutionised the world, but any man who unleashes a product upon the populous capable of such feats of spirit-crushing irritation deserves to live in penury.

But I figured it out in the end.

Rick