Today I was in Birmingham for the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference. It was a very successful event with a packed agenda. Another reminder that whatever shenanigans are going on in Westminster and despite the vagaries of the national polls the Lib Dems local government base is in a robust state and means serious business.

Highlights for me where the too brief conversations with various friends I hadn’t seen for ages, some useful info picked up in the environment fringe with Chris Huhne, and the entertaining banter from the panel session chaired by Nick Clegg.

I also must share the comment made by a Northampton councillor I met who said that;

“being a newly elected councillor is like opening “War and Peace” in the middle and trying to work out what is going on.”