Well, that’s it then. First lesson to anyone else thinking of following Mark and me in guest editing LDV – it’s not really the day you are doing it you need to take off… it’s the day before!
Ideally you need to have your contributions done and dusted the night before. In my case, so close to conference, yesterday was what you might call a challenge. I had a normal day at work, extended because I had been out of the office for nearly a week.
I had then booked to meet fellow Tweeps for a #tweetup, thinking I wouldn’t be needed until the following day. Er……..no!
I ended up having to try and transcribe the Simon Hughes interview on the train home and then when I finally got home. In the middle of all this (at about 12.30am) I had to interview Adrian Trett and write that up too! I finally got it all done and dusted at 3.15am, but then could I get to sleep? So having been awake for virtually 30 hours, if this tails off unexpectedly……………
But it’s been fun. Worrying that I would not get all the contributions I had asked for but experiencing such a wave of relief and excitement as each came in, every single one of them! So I have to say a huge thank you to a few very special people. Firstly Alex Foster and Helen Duffett, who have perused and ultimately published, everything that has come their way. Secondly all those guest contributors who were willing to be inveigled by me into contributing their perspectives today. To Paul Reynolds, John Howson, Meral Ece, Olly Grender, Prateek Buch, Simon Hughes, Adrian Trett, and Mark Littlewood, all with their own unique take on the past week.
So, for those of you contemplating following in my footsteps – do it! It is immensely rewarding, being able to choose your subject and your victims, sorry I mean contributors! I hope you will agree that I have done my best to achieve a good cross section of political opinion in our party and I trust they will have all offered you important insights.
And so to bed………….nite nite 🙂
Linda Jack blogs at www.lindyloozmuze.blogspot.com and tweets @lindylooz. She is a member of the Federal Policy Committee, International Relations Committee and a council member of the Social Liberal Forum. A Youth Policy Adviser at CFEB (formerly part of the FSA) her great passion continues to be ensuring a future for all our young people.