Sunday, October 05, 2008

Training in Lancaster

It is donkeys years since I last went to Lancaster, if indeed I ever have - I seem vaguely to think I went with my mother once. So I was pleased to be invited by Lancaster and Morecambe Local Government Labour Party to talk to them about winning elections.

We met in the Liberal club, although they assured me that there are very few of those in Lancaster and that it might as well be renamed the Labour club without much resistance.

After some hiccups with the laptop and projector, we got the powerpoint presentation finally up and I gave them a version of the presentation I did for Region in February - reminding them about the importance of meeting residents face to face. We had a great chat then, comparing notes on campaigns we had been engaged in and what worked best.

It was also interesting to sit in and listen to the rest of the business, taking a report from the Labour Group Leader and hearing about the issues they have up there, some familiar - waste recycling for instance - and some new to me, like the difficulties of working with the Morecambe Bay Independents who apparently campaigned in the last elections with the slogan "more for Morecambe, less for Lancaster".

I didnt get to see much of the city but what I could see, in the dark and the rain, looked beautiful, old and stone-built, I bet they get lots of film crews up there, filming period pieces. I shall want to go back for a day-trip.

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