I’m currently up in Edinburgh, enjoying the fringe with a few friends from uni. The city is amazingly beautiful, and when I get home over the weekend ill post some of the photos up on here, for all to see.

I would just say though if you get the chance to come here take it. Even if it is not the time of the Fringe, there is plenty to do in this wonderful city.

That said I would just like to know which idiot in the city council decided to effectively dig up all of Princes Street during August – when the city is at its busiest? Surely it would have made more sense to do the work needed say in September when the main tourist attraction to the city isn’t taking place.

As Adam Hills said last night – “that’s quite a cluster-fuck”

I managed to miss both of last year’s federal conferences. In March when the party went to Liverpool, I went on a different kinda party, to New York which is an experience I will never forget and had an amazing time with the friends I went.

I missed Bournemouth for completely different reason – I was broke. And going to New York earlier in the year clearly hadn’t helped that. So whilst almost the entire party went to Bournemouth I started my new job in John Hemming’s Office, as one of his caseworkers/researchers.
So now 18 months after lasting going to conference, I’m planning on going to both this year and fortunately as a staff member, I get my pass paid for by the party.

Friday
I’ve spent the last couple of days at home, recharging my batteries and spending a little time with my family, whom I have seen since Christmas. Fortunately, for where we are right now; my parents live in Barnsley which is an hour by train away from Harrogate. Even more fortunate with a railcard, it cost the grand total of £5.30 for a single ticket to get here.

I found one important thing out about conference. Whilst the official business takes place in the hall, the more important conversations are happening elsewhere, normally in the conference bar. Everybody, well pretty much everybody ends up in the bar at some point. If your looking for someone they’re in the bar...which is something to say about the state of our party.

Saturday
I’d love to give a full and detailed report back of conference business from Saturday, but I can’t. Unfortunately I was a little under the weather (or hungover as it more accurately called). I did however make to the Howard Dean speech. Now my expectations for this were quite high, perhaps a little to high. It was a good speech, the content was perfect for the crowd – how to win and how America will change. However as good as the content was, it was let down by the performance of it. Gov. Dean sounded unsure in parts, speeding up and then stopping suddenly for no reason.

In the evening the continuing theme of lessons from America continued with the inaugural Lib Dem Voice Fringe. So popular was this fringe, that the wall in the small room had to be taken down, and a wave of twitter updates suddenly appeared reporting this to the world.

The fringe itself, once it got going was very interesting. Hearing from two people who worked on the Obama campaign was informative and insightful. And then hearing from Mark Pack, with his criticism of the campaign and Ed Davey on what we should do next, provided one of the best fringe events I have ever attended any lib dem conference.

And then it was off to Glee Club, where the continuing strange tradition, of drunk and semi drunk liberals continues to become even stranger. And yet is the thing that cant be missed. Glee club is the party we ll say were not going to, but we all go to. It is the event that ends conference, a strange idea when conference only officially started just over 24 hours earlier.

It is a shame though that with the Spring Conference there is some feeling of let down. As there is only really two days of conference (if you take Friday evening to count as half a day and Sunday am to be the other half) there is no opportunity for the real variety in the debates that are seen in the fringes at the longer federal conference in September. I know its not possible to bring this full variety to effectively one days worth of fringes, but for me the spring conference just feels like a let down.

Sunday
No I could be considered a little biased when it comes to the other main speech that I saw, but it was ten times better than Howard Dean. Kirsty Williams AM, the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats spoke today about the party’s rise in Wales, as well as the failure of the Labour-Plaid coalition in the Welsh Assembly. Now as I said I am slightly biased as I worked for Kirsty for 6 weeks last summer as an intern in her constituency office but the speech was exactly what was needed. An attack on New labour (and plaid) and presenting the liberal alternative to the continuing problems faced.

So a good, all be it short conference for the party. I continued with my tradition of not attending the leaders speech – nothing personal Nick but I’d like to get to London before the food shops all close so I’ll have half a chance to do a food shop for the week. And now we can all start our countdown to Bournemouth, a mere several months away.

Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP
Secretary of State for Transport,
Great Minster House,
76 Marsham Street,
London,
SW1P 4DR

Dear Rt Hon. Mr Hoon MP,

On behalf of a great-full nation, thank you....thank you for making our normal working live impossible for the last five days. Why is it the Department of Transport, which during normal weather is semi competent at best, is able to cause the entire country to shut down in one demonstration of miss-action (I’m aware I have answered my own question, but let’s keep going anyway)

Why is it that your department is in capable of watching a weather report? I mean its not difficult, BBC news and Sky news show at least two an hour. And even if you miss them the BBC news/Sky news websites provide weather reports.

Maybe I’m being too hard on you, as lets be honest the weather isn’t the only reason your department is so spectacular in its failings

So let’s look at all of your recent spectacular failings.
• Well there’s been the ‘improvements’ to the West Coast Mainline which resulted in it being shut for almost an entire week (and lets remember that was only four weeks ago)
• Then there is the spectacularly stupid decisions to build a new runway and terminal at Heathrow (completely ignoring any notion of reducing C02 out put from this country)
• And now we have your department not watching a weather report

By the way I’m sure there are more failings but these are the ones most recent in my mind
The fact that weather isn’t a science, more of an educated guess shouldn’t have been forgotten but nevertheless within a 72 hour window they are usually pretty accurate. But that should not be an excuse for not being ready for snow. I could understand not being ready for a snow storm in winter if we lived in sub-Saharan Africa, but we don’t – we live in northern Europe which has cold winters (and in our case almost always shitty summers), and cold winters mean we often have temperatures below zero Degrees Centigrade.

Now as you have all failed to watch the weather reports, I’m going to assume that you all failed even the most basic lessons of science. So he is a very quick lesson for you when the temperature gets below zero degrees centigrade water freezes. And when water freezes on roads they need gritting, to ensure they can still be driven on.

Now that is about as simple as I can make it and hopefully you are beginning to see where you have made your mistake. You see having enough grit to last a few weeks would, again would be ok if we weren’t so far away from the equator. What we need is enough grit for the roads so it doesn’t run out, or get close to running out after only a few days.

Now as for the railways – why is it Norman Baker MP can get on a train in Norway, and get all the way to the North Pole (and be there on time) yet a Virgin Train can not leave Birmingham New Street because it has been snowing for about an hour.

Please not other train operators also spectacularly failed over the last few days and it is unfair to blame this completely on Virgin Trains...although that isn’t going to stop me.

Why is, it the trains are so bad on a normal day, let alone and the slightest change in Weather? Virgin Trains have brought a new level to the word incompetent. 4 four weeks ago Sunday I was going to London. Now whilst I got to London roughly when I wanted to, the same can’t be said for the other people on the train, as you guessed it the train had been delayed.

Actually whilst were on the subject of Virgin Trains being delayed, can I just say that if by chance your train is delayed, and they get you into the station on-time...be prepared for a smug announcement for the train manager – believe me I’ve had to listen to one and it was unbearable.

Anyway Mr Hoon you are running a shameful department. To honestly expect everything to carry on as normal when the world changes so quickly, is one of the labour party’s more ridiculous notions. The fact of the matter is with no preparations at all, your department has brought the country to a complete standstill with no action, followed by no-action, followed by even less action.

Yours Sincerely,
Stephen Morgan

Someone who will never vote for you, and perhaps one of the few people in the country who didn’t blag a day off work this week to play in the snow

Yes even though it is likely to end terribly, I will be getting on a Virgin Train later and attempting to use the West Coast Mainline to get to London. I say attempting, as of course we all know two things about that particular route

A) Its had a few problems over the last week, &

B) Even when there aren’t problems with the line itself, there still no guarantee that the Virgin Train will be on-time.

I like so many other people have had mixed problems with Virgin Trains, whether it be the time that I got on 3 separate trains before we even left Euston or the time where we left Birmingham 20 mins late, only to arrive in on time in Euston, and have to listen to the smugness of the train manager boasting that he and his crew had actually done their jobs correctly.

It is of course unfair to blame these problems just on Virgin Trains, when they don’t actually run the tracks; no that’s left to a far more incompetent company. The six days of travel disruption last week, were not the fault of Virgin Trains, but predominately the fault of Network Rail, who apparently when upgrading the line, forgot that very occasionally it is cold in the UK, and maybe some form of precaution for that should have been taken into account.

On the transport chaos Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker MP said: "Natural events do occur, but Network Rail needs to build more resilience into the network. I have travelled from Stockholm to the Arctic Circle on a train that arrived five minutes early, yet Britain lapses into chaos at the first hint of snow."

So my hopes of getting to London today (as I’m working in Parliament all next week) are slim. The chance of a virgin train being on time, are slimmer and the chance of network rail doing their jobs; well that just doesn’t exist.

We were in Yastradgylis today for one of our summer surgery programmes, and fortunately the surgery coincided with the opening of the town’s new, improved library. We were there for over and an hour and a half and I only heard one complaint about it – that the books were the same as before.

Sometimes I don’t understand why people complain. Yes we all have the right to freedom of speech, but is complaining for complaining sake worth the while in the first place? Yes there are problems in the world, and problems in each of our communities, but there is a limit to what our elected representatives can do, after all despite what people may think, they’re only human. And some things are to big to solve on our own, and to expect an instant result for a complaint; is with out a doubt one of the strangest things that people expect for our elected representatives.

So that’s freedom of speech done (for now); now on to the public at large and what exactly they think of our councillors, MPs and AMs. Why exactly do people fail to understand that all the important decisions do not take place in the chambers, at large, at which they sit? Is it poor education or is it because The Sun newspaper is telling them everyday?

Just because Parliament and the various devolved governments aren’t sitting at the moment doesn’t mean that the politicians who sit in them are on a permanent holiday. MPs, AMs, Councillors, they work throughout the year on your casework; when you send a letter to one of them, they work tirelessly to find a solution for you, stay in contact with you and do everything in their power to get a result for you.

So I’m back to the beginning; why do people complain? Well 99% of the time, it’s because they need help. They need advise, assistance, they’re in trouble and they turn to the people that they’ve entrusted with their votes. They’re the people who are looking for answers as to why something has happened, something that usually doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

And I guess for the other 1% of the time, it’s because they can and they’re bored...but of what is for you all to work out as I simply do not know, nor do I really care. Instead of thinking of an answer to that I’ll spend my time helping the 99%.

Monday 28th/ Tuesday 29th - AKA The days of contrasting weather

So on Monday we were in Knighton delivering leaflets for Kirsty Williams – the weather sunny and hot and easily a nice 25 degrees
And then the rain came, and that started the bad weather we’ve all pretty much seen over the last 24 hours. Fortunately I've missed the main rain showers as I've been inside. Yesterday I got to my gran’s house earlier than normal which meant I was able to watch the monsoon style rain from my bedroom, whereas if id been coming back form the office at the normal time, I would have been caught in the lovely storm. And then of course it shifted for the rest of the evening – either it was like a monsoon, or it was the calm before the...well monsoon to keep the metaphor going.
And so Tuesday – the weather was...well pretty much back to a British summer, consisting of rain, rain and more rain. Fortunately we were in the office!

Saturday 26th July

Well today was my first day off and as such I enjoyed a nice relaxing morning doing as little as possible , although I was woken up by army helicopters that kept flying over head. In the afternoon I took advantage of the fantastic weather we had and took a walk from the bottom of the road my garn lives on, onto the canal and then into Brecon itself, before going along the promenade;

Thursday 24th July

Well since these aren’t being published on the actual days they were written, anyone who has read my blog should at least in theory know the answer – Yes Mr Cameron was at the Royal Welsh Show, and no we didn’t go.

Wednesday 23rd July

Do we stay or do we go?

We learnt today that David Cameron MP (or C**T as I call him for short) will be at the Royal Welsh Show tomorrow...so the question is do we go there as well, so that there is a good quantity of lib dems to counter act the evil Tory presence, or do we stay in the office so that we can get on with our very important case work?

However for the record David Cameron will likely spend just a few hours there, whilst Roger Williams MP and Kirsty Williams AM, the 2 Liberal Democrat politicians who represent Brecon and Radnorshire were at the show for hours both on Monday and Tuesday, and Kirsty has spent today at the show as well, and the two of them have been attending meetings that greatly affect the constituency, as well as spending time with constituents who have dropped by the stall.

Tuesday 22nd July

I’m so tired  As I write this to you all its 20:41 on Tuesday afternoon, although of course you wont read this for at least a few days (or maybe less if I can blag some internet access at work!!!). Anyway today I've been at the Royal Welsh Show, which for those of you who haven’t heard about it (which included me until last week) is the largest agricultural show in Europe and attracts around 200,000 people over a 4 day period (although this figure is based on last year where after heavy rain, made the site was more like the Somme).

So for those of you who haven’t been to the show, it’s basically in two parts. There’s the agricultural side which includes all the competitions and there is the stall side, and even within the stall side there is 2 separate parts. There are the mountains of local craft stalls selling everything you could ever think off – from tractors to dog pillows, and then there is the side where the stalls aren’t selling so much as there getting you to listen.

So in other words the second side is like the exhibit and conference, and just like conference the aim is to get as much free stuff as possible.
There were only 2 drawbacks to my time there, 1) I was working so didn’t have that much time to go and explore all the stalls or get much free stuff, and 2) we were practically opposite the evil Tories (I’m sire there are some nice tories in the country but as of yet I haven’t found that many, or at least not ones who work for the party). So to avoid the traffic we (I got a lift up to the site with my boss and a couple of other people) left Brecon around just after 7.45am (which meant I got up at 6.30am, which would have been fine except for the fact that the night before I couldn’t get to sleep, and so I had only had a few hours sleep). We got to the site with no problems at all and were at the lib dem stall, which we were going to be running for the day by 8.30am, with the site opening at 9.00am.

The weather in the morning was cloudy and quite cool which made the impression that the day would be cool and a relatively nice day to be out. Instead the weather had a surprise for us – it was bloody boiling. Now I’m not complaining that were finally having temperatures that should be seen in July but by mid afternoon it just became to hot to stand outside on the pavement between the stalls so we retreated to the canvass covering our stall. But that was in the afternoon, we spent the morning handing out leaflets that had been produced for a campaign that is being led by Roger Williams MP.

The campaign relates to the high cost of petrol, but specifically it relates to rural petrol stations, like the one’s seen in Brecon and Radnorshire. You see, whilst the cost of petrol in urban areas is very high, lets say for example it costs on average £1.19 to buy a litre of petrol in a city centre (like Cardiff for example) it would cost £1.23 from a petrol station, from the same company, in a petrol station in Brecon (which is less that an hour away by car, to Cardiff).

So, why is this? Well it costs more to transport the petrol to the rural areas; the rural areas that have little choice of where to buy petrol from and as a result people living in rural areas pay on average at least 3-4p higher than those people living in urban areas. But there is a solution – and EU law which allows governments to have a rebate in rural areas so that the price of petrol can be the same as in urban areas. When the last finance bill went through Parliament an amendment was offered by the Lib Dems to enact this EU law. The Labour party voted against it, whilst the Conservatives (who claim to be a party for rural areas, as well as urban areas) didn’t vote at all.

Monday 21st July

I had some free time before work started, so I took a little walk around the town centre, and found where my granddad’s chemist used to be.
(its the one on the left)

So, work was interesting to say the least; filled with work....surprisingly. Tomorrow I’m at the Royal Welsh show, doing what I’m not exactly sure but now I’m sleepy, which is strange when you consider its only 21.10.
Correction its now 21.15 and I’m not sleepy, which is strange as I've just learnt that I've got to get up at 6.30am tomorrow 

Sunday 20th July
Day 2, or day 1 if u wish to count that way, but that doesn’t really matter, all that matter is that today has been my first full day here in Brecon. I would love to tell you that my day has been full of adventures but truth to be told I've spent the day relaxing and doing as little as possible. As I cope without the internet to constantly check on facebook, I’ve spend the day beginning to watch through the mountain of DVDs I’ve brought with me to keep me from going insane. Seriously my Gran’s house is the place that time forgot. It has never changed, with one mild exception – that being that the beds in the spare rooms have been swapped around and my gran has a new chair. That’s it; just 2 changes in my lifetime. Everything else from the carpet on the floors to the leather suite in the living room is exactly as it has been for 21 years. Even my granddads desk is in the exact same spot that it has lived for years.

And then there are the photos – they have changed, or being moved around so that the new ones are allowed to shine. But, despite that, still the memories of old take pride of place around the house. I’m staying in what was my uncle’s room when he lived here; and here just like at home there is the photo of my granddads old chemist shop, which he ran in the town centre for so many years. And then there are the school photos – not just of me and my brothers which take pride of place downstairs in the front room but also of my dad and his brother which are jotted around this house as if they were keeping one last gaze on their childhood home. There is even a photo of all of the males of the family, which unfortunately was taken after my granddad had died, but there we are, appropriately in front a shop called Morgan. There we are; all of us together.

The Brecon diaries are my experiences and thoughts whilst I’m here for 6 weeks. Unfortunately I have no full time internet access here, so instead of the standing blogging, where I would post these on the actual days I wrote them, I present you with a diary, dates and all which I will upload and update as often as I can.

Saturday 19th July, 2008.

I feel like I should have been nervous. Not just of the job I start on Monday but also living with my Gran. Don’t get me wrong I love my family to bits, but within everyone there are the little faults of humanity that people just don’t like; the parts of a person that rub you up the wrong way or just tend to annoy you. Well my family like I’m guessing all others have there’s. My Gran is 88, and has lived alone now for many years, and life is beginning to take its toll and as such her memory isn’t what it used to be. So that means many conversations that follow the same track, day after day after day.

But on the way here this did not worry me, nor did it even cross my mind. The eight hours it took for me to travel from Barnsley to Brecon, went by relatively quickly, although this is most likely thanks to my I-pod which meant I had plenty to listen to without the fear of the battery running out after just half way through the journey.

So why have I travelled 8 hours on the national express? Well the simple truth is I start a 6 week internship on Monday here in the town with the local Liberal Democrats. Specifically I’ll be working for Kirsty Williams, the Welsh Assembly Member for Brecon and Radnorshire. I got the job by chance, or at least that’s what I think. For anyone who wants to work in politics, be it for an MP, AM or MSP, or a party at large or even a political organisation (like for instance the Electoral Reform Society) then there is a fantastic website for job listings – www.w4mp.org .

By chance I looked on there 10 days ago and saw the listing for many jobs across the country with the party; all of them being internships and all of them being no-where-near where I lived which was no help to me. The last posting on the lib dem search was for this internship, in Brecon, and fortunately for me I have family in the area. So once I’d told my parents about the position I sent off my application thinking that chances are someone from the local area would get the job, but maybe just maybe I would at least get an interview.

My application went in on the Wednesday, the next day I got my university results; a 2:1. On Tuesday I had my interview and by the afternoon I had been offered the job. Maybe it was the speed that this all took place, is that is why I am yet to feel nervous about having a job in the field I wish to work in, in the future. Whether it was from being offered the job on Tuesday to arriving here today I have not really thought about any of it, I’ve had other things on my mind and because of other things I needed to take care of before I left Barnsley the actual reality has still yet to sink in.
But at least there is time for that to happen as tomorrow I look to explore the town I haven’t been in for the better part of a decade. Although my Dad and his brother were not born here, Brecon is almost the heart of my family. It is where my Dad and Uncle spent most of there young lives, and it was the place where my Granddad set up and ran his own chemist in the town centre, whilst my Grandmother ran a sweet shop, just down the road from the chemist. This is the Morgan family heritage, we will always be connected to Brecon and so in part it seems fitting that here is where I start my post university working life

So a little later than I had planned, here is what I got up to in New York, last week.

We left on Sunday morning, at a ridiculously early time – just after 7.30 am. That meant I got up at 6 am, showered and got dressed, and then checked I had everything before heading up to the university to meet the bus. It was strange seeing Lincoln so quiet, as if the place had been evacuated and I was the only person left. I got to bridge house nice and early, I was surprised to learn that the first person there, was someone who usually shows up late to lectures. But anyway, I got there, and was one of the last of our group – our group that was easily recognisable as we had gotten hoodies made. Sad maybe; funny yes; easily recognizable in a crowd defiantly.

The coach ride down to Heathrow was interesting, everyone was strangely hyper and the time seemed to fly by. We got to Heathrow just after 12, and were checked in within the next 30 mins and from then we were ‘free’ – no lecturers watching over us, the only rules were don’t get wasted and be at the gate for when it opens. So what did we do – well as soon as we cleared the security checks including a separate scanning machine for people’s shoes, we headed off into the duty free area and took advantage of the free samples – one of baileys, one of whiskey and one of something else...and then we headed off to the bar.

Our flight was at 3.55pm, and the gate opened just after half 2, I think, which left us little time to do anything. I saw some of Nick’s speech and then the clapping at then end, before learning the news that Britain was about to be hit by a massive storm, and fortunately for us, although not for everyone else, we were going to fly around the storm. We had a couple of drinks in the bar, as well as a little bit of food, before it was time to head to the gate, and to break with airport tradition we were at gate number 1.

I’m usually fine with flying, once were in the air that is, it’s the take-off and landings for some peculiar reason that I don’t like. So once we had taken off, and throughout the group had swapped seats so we were all sat in our particular friend circles, the onboard entertainment came on, and the drinks were served. Most of the students in our group were under 21, which meant once they got to America they weren’t going to be able to drink and so everyone seemed to take advantage of the free alcohol, whilst bearing in mind that getting absolutely hammered wasn’t an option.

I watched Juno whilst on the flight and for me it lived up to all the hype that’s been going around about it. I can easily see why Ellen Page was nominated for an Oscar for it, her performance is stunning, and the movie is brilliant – Allison Jenney’s smallish part is perfect for her, funny and serious at the same time, just like CJ in the West Wing. As for other entertainment I watched 2 episodes of Family Guy and 2 episodes of the Class, the Top Gear episode where they had to make their own limousines as well as Stardust – another brilliant film.

Unfortunately the food on the flight was not so brilliant. The choice on both flights was either Chicken or Beef, both of which I tried, and both of which I will never try again. After a time the flight became tedious. People were already tired having been up since 6am (British time) and as we didn’t land till 7.50pm in New York, which in essence was 11.50 British time – we would come to learn, after staring at the clocks in JFK for an hour, that America had moved their clocks forward on the Saturday night so they were now only 4 hours behind the UK, instead of the usually 5.

Once we had landed, we then faced the troubles of immigration. Firstly we were queued for over an hour to get the actual people, and there we had to hand over the forms we had filled in on the plane, one of which includes a question asking if you were involved with the Holocaust. With tighter security after the 9/11 attacks travellers entering the United States now have their finger prints recorded, and their Iris scanned. It didn’t take to long to get through security, once you had got an actual person that is, and for their part the officials were directing people to the American section of the desks (usually for Americans re-entering the country) to clear the backlog of people. So all was going relatively well until one member of our group was taken away to be furthered questioned.

Apparently his name flashed up on some terrorist watch list and hence he was taken to a room away from the rest of us. Two of our lectures went to find out was happening, and stay with him to make sure he would be ok, whilst the third lecturer took the rest of the students passed customs and into the main arrivals building where we waited for news. We waited as long as we could before we had to go and get the coach transfer to the YMCA we were staying out. As it turned out whilst we were on our way into Manhattan the student and the lecturers cleared immigration and customs and were on their way in a cab.

After settling in, to our rooms and ordering take away pizza, we all went to bed at just after 1 am local time (5am GMT). Sleep would have been a great idea, if it wasn’t for another group of students arriving at the YMCA and making an absolute racket for the next hour or so :(

Monday

We got up and got smartly dressed, as we were spending the day at the UN – first for a tour of the building and then for a student conference in the afternoon. We walked to the UN, from west 63rd street where we were staying, down to Times Square which spreads from 42nd street at its southern point to 46th Street at its northern point, and from 46th street we walked east, to the end of the road and there is the HQ for the UN. The tour of the building it self was amazing, although the facts given out by the tour guide were mostly things you can find on the UN website. On the tour itself we saw the UN Security Council Chamber, the UN General Assembly chamber as well as items which survived the nuclear detonation at Hiroshima but had been melted so that they no longer resembled their former selves and for most people in our group the highlight of an AK-47 being turned into a guitar.

The conference in the afternoon was for students from across Britain, and took place within the UN itself, in one of the conference rooms that is normally used by the diplomats when they are discussing whatever it is they do. It took the format of three guest speakers and then question an answering sessions with each of them, and then we were meant to have a debate on the powers of the UN Security Council, and specifically should the 5 permanent members of the Security Council have a veto. However instead of having the debate we had a general Q&A session with the man in charge of the conference.

The conference finished just before 6 o’clock and for the rest of the night we were once again free from our lecturers. We decided to head back to the YMCA, so headed off to the nearest subway station, which was Grand Central Station. So before we got on to the subway itself we went into the main bit of Grand central and took a few pictures, then tried to work out how to get back to the YMCA. The plan was simple – get a subway to Time’s Square and from there head north, and the plan worked really well, until we went the wrong way at Times Square and ended up on 14th Street.

So we turned around and eventually got to 66th Street which was the closest station. Quickly went to our rooms to pick up some money and get leave our conference stuff their, then we headed back to the subway and headed to Times Square to find some food. We ended up at an Irish bar just off Times square had a nice meal out, before going back to Times Square and then heading off to Rockefeller centre via another bar. I took a few more photos at Rockefeller, before heading back to the YMCA.

Tuesday

In the morning we visited Ground Zero, and unlike the last time I was there the site has changed and is now no longer more a memorial but a building site. The vender’s across the street are all gone now and work has begun to build the new World Trade Centre. After visiting the site we headed down to the Tenement museum, which looks at housing for immigrants up to the 1930’s. It was interesting to see the changes the people faced in just a short amount of time.

After the museum we went to 34th street where the Empire State Building is, but before going up we went and grabbed some food from diner, with a waitress who could not count to 7. The Empire state Building looked really busy, based on the queue to get in the building, but once we got passed the ground floor there was practically no-one there. Once we got to the observation deck, the view was clear for miles, we could see all over the city, from downtown to the tips of the city.

We stayed up there for maybe half an hour, before heading off to Macy’s, and there we went our separate ways as we shopped. I bought a necklace for my mum, which was a late mother’s day present, and after I got that, I headed up to Times Square, which I walked to. Took a look round the virgin megastore, looked for a few CDs, but it turned out they were cheaper here in the UK, then headed off to the Hershey’s store to get some chocolate for a friend.

After walking from Macy’s, on 34th street to 63rd street my legs finally gave up, so I went up to my room and rested on my bed for an hour whilst I waited for some pain killers to quick and my leg would stop hurting.
In the evening we got smartly dressed again and went to the Marriot at times square, to go to a revolving bar called ‘The View’. We each had a drink, and it was expensive but when you’re not just getting a drink but a spectacular view of the whole city it was incredibly worth it. We saw most of the city while we were up there and pretty much went all the way around, before we headed out, and down to Rockefeller again so that some of the group could go ice skating, which was very funny to watch. It was around 11 before we went for food and being very hungry and wanting somewhere we knew would still be serving, so we headed back to the Irish bar form Monday night. And after that we headed back and crashed in our rooms

Wednesday

Wednesday was the hardest morning to wake up...the jet lag had finally set in and everyone was absolutely shattered...which is why it was kind of sad that Wednesday was our last day in New York. In the morning, after checking out of our rooms we got on the subway and headed down to Battery Park so that we could get the ferry over to Ellis Island. The views from the ferry were amazing, not just of Ellis Island but also of the Statue of Liberty, and downtown Manhattan. Ellis Island it self was interesting. They’ve turned the building now into a museum that not just looks at the history of the Island, but also at the history of immigration throughout the United States. We stayed at Ellis Island for a couple of hours before heading back to the Manhattan, got the subway back to the YMCA and were all ready to go to the airport, when we found out form the travel company that the information that they gave us on our itinerary was wrong, and we had a couple more hours in the city to explore before we were needed to get the coach to the airport.

So we went Strawberry fields and saw where John Lennon was shot, and then explored central park for over an hour before going back to the YMCA and getting a drink in the cafe and waiting for everyone else to assemble before we headed off to JFK. We checked in incredibly quickly, and then had a little over 2 hours in the airport, and after we’d bought some duty free and had a bite to eat it was time to get on the plane and fly home.

The flight home was quick, just under 6 hours, and very turbulent but it was fine although I got practically no sleep, which basically meant that I slept on the coach back to Lincoln, and then slept for 12 hours Thursday night.

So, ive been in New York for he last few days, and have had an amazing time. I'll write about what i got up to, sometime in the next fewdays, but for now here are a few photos from the trip;

I know that I’m late blogging about this, when you consider that it happened Tuesday night/ Wednesday morning, but it’s official now John McCain will be the Republican Nominee for President of the United States. Whilst for now we are no closer to knowing who will be the Democrat nominee will be, since Obama and Clinton still remain neck and neck in the race to, be in the race to the white house.

It is looking more and more likely that the race is going to be decide by the Superdelegates. Although there is still a chance that the voters will decide the outcome of the primary process, this is looking slimmer and slimmer, and so the Campaigns move on; today to Wyoming and Tuesday to Mississippi.

Me on the other hand; I will actually be in America when the next primary takes place. I’m off to New York tomorrow, hence my absence from the party conference in Liverpool, to attend a student conference at the United Nations.



The one day conference which will see a debate on whether or not the five permanent members of the Security council should give up their Veto, added to other educational activities on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, including visits to Ellis Island and the Tenement museum will see me out of the country for the first time since I went to university, and the first time I’ve been to America in over 5 years.



In fact the last time I was there (in America) I was in New York, a mere 18 months after the 9/11 attacks. Like last time I will again visit ground zero, which was a strange experience the first time. A site where thousands of people died; and tens of thousands of people’s lives changed forever; for it to now be a tourist attraction just seems wrong. But that unfortunately isn’t the worst thing about the site. I’m hoping that times have changed and that what I remember being there is no longer there.



Last time I was at ground zero it was a cold it was a foggy Sunday morning which just added to the cold effectiveness of the site. But opposite was something I did not expect to see, people capitalising on the tragedy by selling all things American.



Posters, photos and American flags decorated over everything and there they were not seeing the tragedy but seeing a chance to make money.

So will New York have changed? At the moment I don’t know, but so much has changed since that dreadful day that it now impedes upon all of our lives, and of course our elections.



And America is no different; terrorism and the war on terror remain key issues for the campaigns that are fighting across America, for the chance to fight for America. Mississippi is next for the Democrats, whilst the republicans look to unite around John McCain and the one interesting thing now for the republicans will be; will McCain let President Bush who for the most is seen to blame for all that has happened since that day, campaign with him. He faces a choice bring Bush along to unite the party, or risk bringing Bush along and alienate the rest of America against a new Republican administration. For the democrats we all wait, and I’m fairly sure to say, in boredom to see will one give up to help the other. Will it be Obama or Clinton, or could we get very lucky and despite the negativity of the campaign see the dream ticket of either Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama in the race to the White House, a race that will not finish for over 7 months.

October has come and gone for another year, and for me this has been a month where everything has been tested. It is a month I will not be forgetting for a very long time.

You see at the start of the month something happened and I heard something I never thought I would hear again – one of my relatives had cancer.

Now out of respect for their anonymity I will not tell you who it was, or even how that person is related to me. I’ve waited till now that the all clear has been given, to even think about blogging about this.

It’s strange to be saying all clear after only a month, but we were lucky, it was caught early and the tumour was removed within 10 days of the person being told, and thanks to quick treatment no chemotherapy will be needed to ensure that it is gone.

I know first hand that it is not always this way. But I also know that despite what we always read in the papers, the NHS is a good thing and its actions save lives rather than cause their deaths.

There’s a quote from Ronald Regan, form the letter he wrote announcing that he had Alzheimer’s, that has been stuck in my mind for the last few weeks;

“I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life”

Well for now we have avoided one sunset, and hopefully we can avoid them for along time.

so, I’ve been in Barnsley for the last week or so, as last week it was my mothers 50th birthday :)

I came back on Monday, on the train, which took longer than normal as there are, or at that point were, no trains between Lincoln and Sheffield (due to a problem with the track at Kiviton, caused by the floods). So i got the train to don caster, and then on to meadowhall, which actually turned out to be quicker than it usually is. got picked up from the station, by my mum and my brother David, and then headed off to see my niece Katie. She's nearly one now, her birthday is at the end of august, but more about her later

Tuesday, was my mum's birthday. Me and my 2 brothers clubbed together to buy my mum a diamond necklace. For the day itself we (Me, my mum and David) went out to wetherspoons, in the town center where we met up with Gaynor, Katie and Bex, and slowly but surely made our way through the wetherspoons coupon book. Me and my brother had the 2 steaks + a bottle of wine deal, which cost £14.99 :) We stayed there for most of the afternoon, although we did move form upstairs to downstairs for some unknown reason. Didn’t do to much when i got home, as i was shattered, and ended up going to bed around 10

Wednesday, we (Me and my mum) were meant to be going out with Katie, Gaynor and Bex, but Gaynor was feeling a little under the weather (she blamed it on the wine) so Katie and Bex came round to my parents house for a bit, while Gaynor recovered

On Thursday, we went to Cannon Hall. Now for those who don’t know Cannon Hall is a country house museum set in 70 acres of historic parkland, and is about 10-15 mins from junction 37 of the M1, which is near where we live.

 

One of the great things they have there is the farm where you can go around and feed and stroke the animals. We first had lunch on the grounds, before going into the park. Going round the farm was pretty funny as Katie is beginning to talk, she can say daddy and a few other words, and whilst at the farm she was almost saying "What’s That" :)

After we went round and stroked all the animals, we went down in to the house it self, for a bit of a look around, and then headed down to feed the ducks.

Friday, my mum had a BBQ in the evening to celbrate her B'day, which she is going to celebrate until september. And at the weekend, i did bugger all, just layed aroud the house, and went to vist my grandparents

Source

this week, here in lovely old lincoln, a planned concert for The Feeling along with one for Marti Pellow, at Lincoln castle was Cancelled, because the County Council, which owns and operates the castle, did not fill in the necessary paperwork needed for the event to take place.

Now, this is unfortunate for all the fans of The Feeling here in lincoln, who will not get to see the band, well all except me :) thats because last week i went to see the Feeling at Delemare Forest in Cheshire. i wasnt a really big fan of the band before going, and only went because therer was a free ticket and it was also a chnce to see my brother, which rarley happens now.

Friday - so i left lincoln at 12.30, enjoyed the chaos at sheffield station, caused by the floods in south yorkshire, got to manchester, changed trains again and finally got to chester at half past 4 :( my brother met me at the station, we went to his house, fortunatly near the station, dropped off my stuff and headed off into the city centre. saw Davids new apartment (above the wetherspoons where he works) the headed off to some random pub thats aparently traditional to go in. all in know is that it used to be half a barbor shop and half a pub.

we went ot another pub for food, then off to tescos to buy some food and wine and then headed back to his house to watch big borther + friday night project.

Saturday - had a massive fry up around lunch time and got ready to head out. one of davids friends came round then we headed off in to the city centre to meet sarah in a pub.we slowly made our way over to the train station, ia several more pubs, and eventually we got our train down to delemare, then walked through the wood to where the concert was.

the support act was a band called Ghost who were very good, their cover of the Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha" was very very good and after a small break The feelng came on. they played for about an hour and 20mins, did a cover of 'Video Killed the Radio Star' which my brother recognised formt he opening bar, and overall they were absolutly brilliant.

so after the gig, we headed back to chester, on the last train, and once we were in the city, went to get pizza, then back to davids house.

Sunday - woke up with me legs kinda aiking, got ready to go, watched the start of BBLB then headedoff to the train station ot once again do a 4 hour train journey :( although it was wortyh as when i got back to Lincoln saw the red arrows fly right over the city :)

this weekend ive spent at home in Barnsley with my family. It was my niece's christening on sunday so we all came together for the weekend. 

cant really remeber what i did during the day on thursday, i was probably lying around the house, watching tv. randmonly went to debenhams in the evening with natasha and emily, before going to the pub with natasha.

i woke up early on friday, before 9, got washed and dressed and packed before heading into the city centre to do a few jobs, get my train tickets and buy some lunch. headed home, checked i had everything then headed to the train station. it takes about an hour and twenty minuets to get to sheffield, and after a 10 min wait in the station Meadowhall is only a few mins away. my dad picked me up from the station there, after having a meeting in sheffield an we headed home. My brother was comming to barnsley on saturday, so in the evening it was just the 4 of us, me and my parents as well as my gran who had been staying with my parents for the last week. Have i got news for you was good this week, Chris Tarrent being one of the better guest hosts they've had over the last few weeks, esp as he was willing and able to make fun of himself, as well as everyone else.

woke up quite early on saturday, and again didnt really do much throughout the day. David (my borther) and Sarah (his friend) arrived a little brefore 12 and together we all watched the incredibly boring FA cup final, as well as all the build up towards it. my mum brought katie around for an hour or so during the match, it was amazing to see how much she'd changed in the few weeks since id seen her last (at easter). we spent the evening catching up before having an early night.

we needed to leave the house by 9.50am on sunday, so on saturday we worked out shower slots (i know it sounds silly, but with 6 of us needing to be ready at the same time, with only one shower in the house; a little bit of planning was needed). as it turns out we were all ready by 9.30. the church is in a couple of villages away from where we live in barnsley, but it only takes about 10-15 mins to get there. we were pretty much the first people there, form out family at least, apart form my grand parents, Uncle Chris and my cousin Sarah and her husband Gareth. the service started at 10.30, and james arrived with gaynor, rebbecca and katie by 10.20 ish. the service lasted about an hour, and after taking a few photos in the church we headed over to the recpetion in barnsley

the reception ended after 5, by which point most people had left anyway. my mum had taken katie back to out house, so that Gaynor could have a night out without having to worry about taking care of katie. so slowly a few we headed up into barnsley town centre, to wetherspoons.  me, david and sarah played on the itbox for a little bit, won a few £s on deal or no deal and stayed for a bit of food before heading over to another pub in barnsley where the others were.
we stayed out till 11.30, by which point both James and Gaynor were very drunk, and wed made our way to funnygals, and randomly watched a cher tribute act that had been on stars in their eyes. 

i was surprised on monday that when i woke up i didn't feel to hungover, despite drinking quite a bit throughout sunday. woke up just after 8, by the sounds of katie screaming :) my dad was taking gran back to brecon, and left a little after 9. i got lift from sarah and david, who took me down to meadowhall, before gonig to chester. satyed in meadowhall for a bit, had mcdonalds, before heading into sheffield to get the train back to lincoln.

this weekend has been mostly spent revising and relaxing. its been strange not getting a phone call from Ross or Ryan asking if i can help out delivering the latest leaflett. as much as i hate delivering, in a strange way i think am going to miss it, although thats mostly becasue over the last 4 weeks here in lincoln its beeen lovely weather and perfect for delivering. Strangely ever since the Conservative Party victory on thursday night/Friday morning the weather has been horrible.

anyway i have one more exam to go and then i've finished year 2 of uni. fortunatly the exam is wednesday, unfortunatly i think this is gonig to be the most difficult. Its International Relations - Contemporary Issues in Middle East Politics, with a question on the Arab/Israeli conflict and a question on either of the 3 'gulf wars' (that includes the Iran/Iraq war)

i spent most of saturday revisin, and yesterday after a nice long lie in i spent the afternoon revising. last night i watched Dr Who, as i forgot to video it on saturday. at one point we were thinking about going out but decided instead to go down to one stop, got some wine (3 different bottles as we couldnt decide which one to get) and headed home.

there seems to be something more enjoyable about staying in and watching a movie wth your friends, then going out a bar and being charged a fortune for a couple of drinks. we watched Mean girls, which is absolutly hilarious, shrek 2 - another brilliant film and the then started to watch superman the return.

Election Day started for me, along with Heather, Ryan and Ross at 5.30 in the morning. we got up early to go and deliver good mornings and come 6.10 we were on our way, each with a budle of leafletts and two of the walks ryan has worked out and begun to deliver. we had finished our first walks by 8 and had a surprisingly large number of leafletts left. we stayed at heather and ryans for a bit until there was a phone call from an officer at the council...their was a possible problem in carholme

on wednesday ryan and ross, along with Helen Heath had been putting up diamonds and posters near polling stations throughout the ward, that they assumed, and actually were, all inorder. now im not 100% sure waht the problem was, but it was something to do with the small print about who printed the posters/diamonds. anyway it was all sorted out and after sitting around in heather and ryan's front room we headed back out to deliver the rest of the good mornings - that fortuantly didn't say 'good morning' rather they said 'dont forget to vote today'

having done all the walks around the scincil bank area of Lincoln - near the football stadium - we headed down to bottom of the high street and into St Catherines. ong story short 3 hours later we had delivered almost all of them - me and ryan had about 10 left betwen us, and had come to the conclusion we had gotten more than were ordered. we headed back to heather and ryans had a bite to eat before heading into the city centre to do some shopping. i personally nearly spent £79 on a pair of trouses. Thank God i saw the label :)

after going our seperate ways, we agreed to meet at one of our wetherspoons around 9 for a drink b4 heading off down to the count. well that was ok apart from getting ID. we stayed for a drink, then headed down to another wetherspoons (next to the drill hall where the count was taking place) to find it packed full of candidates, agents and activists from the conservative party. we stayed there for a bit, chatted, mingled, got ID again and then headed into the drill hall, found our wards and began to watch the long process of counting the votes.

throughout the night we got updates from other results, starting with the news from Hull :) we heard the good news from West Lindsey, as well as the news of the coing toss victory for one of the Tory candidates. we were also intervied by journalists from the Echo, i was worried about that but the others said i did fine, and by 2.30am we still hadnt heard anything.

the joy of having all up elections meant that what last year took a couple of hours was easily going to take twice,or even 3 times as much time. It also meant that we saw a spectacular numbering of split ticket voting,, form voting for 2 from one party and one from another, to several people who voted 1 Green, 1 BNP and 1 UKIP. (any explanations for this would be greatly appreciated)

So then one by one, the candidates and agents were called by the returning officer to be told the result. Although this wasnt the official decrelation - this was just to majke sure no none wanted a recount - after the first few wards the Tories had at least 9 councillors elected, and were wll on thier way to getting the 17 they needed to having overall control.

when park was finally called up, we were practically the last ward to be called the only other one left were carholme the Tories had already won the election, so now it was just a case to see whom else was gonig to be on the counil for the next 12 mounths. If you read my earlier post you'll know the result already, or if you talked to me, ryan or Hether then you'll know. Unfortunalty it just wasn't our year. Heather came in 4th place, Ryan was 4 votes behind in 5th, and i was roughly 60 votes behind them in 7th, out of 12 candidates.

a little dishartened we waited for carholme. they were called up told the results, and one of the labour candiates demanded a recount as she'd come in 4th place by 14 votes, loosing out to Helen Heath - the only Lib Dem who one in Lincoln last night. while the recount was takin place yan, Heather and i and some of the other candidates from all parties left the drill hall and ehaded home to sleep after a very long night. the final result from Carholme saw exactly the same result as had been seen earlier, 2 labour and 1 lib dem

So, thank you to everyone who voted for me and to everyone who helped out with leafletting over the last few weeks. Thank you to everyone who voted for me, as well as those who voted for Heather and Ryan. Congratulations to Helen for winning, and congratulations to all Lib dems who won throughout the country.

Election results are in and the Tories have taken control of lincoln city council, for the first time in a long, long time. the tories won a total of 17 seats, a net gain of 6 to take full control over lincoln. Labour lost 5 seats to take them down to 15.

yesterday morning the lib dems had 2 councillors Ryan & Heather. they along with me were standing in park ward, up against 2 other labour councillors. Unfortunatly Labour took all 3 seats in the ward, with Heather coming 4th, Ryan coming 5th, and I came 7th out of 12 candidates. in our other target ward Carholme, we did manage to get 1 counillor elected - Helen Heath a former councillor from Manchester

in other news from lincolnshire. West lindsey has remained Lib Dem, with a gain of 1 seat, whilst in North Kesteven the result is yet to be declared. 

EDIT 
Forgot to mention in west lindsey, conservative Christopher Underwood-Frost  won his seat by the toss of a Coin. He and Liberal demorcat John Birkenshaw both got 781 votes

the usual election day ritual has begun here in lincoln. Good mornings have been delivered, well for the most part we still have a 100 or so to go, votes have already been cast, and the street cleaners are out here in park ward, on pretty much the only day your gaurenteed to see them, making he place look clean and tidy

all this and there still 11 hours left until the count starts :)

no this isn't a odd-one out round, this is pretty much everythin i did last night. yesterday was my housemate, Alex's birthday so we were planning on going to the fun fair in lincoln that was until alex said he had never had a birthday cake. so me and leanna rush outside to her car, and drive down to tescos, although we did get lost on the way, to buy alex a birthday cake, ice cream (for some reason) and candels b4 rushing home to light the candels so alex could finally have a birthday cake. (he later told us he had, had a cake b4)

the fun-fair was, and is until the end of this week, on the common at the end of the high street in lincoln, which bascially means its at the end of road about 15 mins walk from my house. id been past the fun fair twice over the weekend when we were delivering leafletts in Park ward. once we got to fun fair we headed in went on a few rides - id would like to point out no matter what anyone else says i did not scream on the second ride - i was laughing. we stayed there for a couple of hours, right up until the whent he rides began to shut-down. we went on quite possibly the worst ghost train ever, as well as the dodgems which was absolutly hilarious apart form the massive bruise i now have on my right knee :(

ok we got back to our house around 9.45, one of leanna's friends headed home and the rest of us sat in the front room, when alex came up with the brilliant idea of playing Tiddlywinks, which was a good idea apart form the fact that none of us where any good at it, which basically meant that anna(one of leanna's friends) won every game. so after we realised we were rubbish at Tiddlywinks, Alex's next great idea was to play poker which was great except for one thing, i'd never played poker b4. so after a quick explenation of the rules, we began to play Texas hold'em i did fairly well. we gave up playing, not to sure when, around 12.30 cleared up down stairs, then i went off to watch 24, b4 going to sleep