Back in the South / Social IV - no comments

Sorry for the lack of posting, which has taken a bit of a dive recently with the various things I've had to do for the site, though you'll also be seeing plenty of those in the next few days.

I returned from my brief tour of the North West (Stockport-Manchester-Macclesfield) on Sunday evening, having met quite a few new people, and even approached perfect strangers at drinks receptions, though I had no access whatsoever to Conference events (the nearest I came was seeing the Rt. Hon. Alan Johnson in the street), to showbiz parties, or to free alcohol. I didn't even run into either of the 'Blairite' or 'Brownite' gangs the MSM insist were battling for supremacy.

Notwithstanding, the 4th BloggersLabour social achieved a good attendance considering the competition, and by my reckoning, no fewer than 27 people attended. Apart from myself we were graced by: Adele, Alex, Antonia, Bob, Catherine, Dan P, Dan J, Gareth, Jag, JK, Jonathan, Kerron, Lola, Matthew, Mike, Norm, Omar, Paul S, Rami, Rav, Ridiculous Politics, Stephen, Tom, Will, a guy from Channel 4 who bought me a drink (expenses) but thankfully didn't interview me, and possibly other people too I've neglected to mention.

Perhaps a more decentralised, pub-style, seating plan would have made it easier to form chat-inducing huddles than the long tables, and obviously it's a shame people couldn't necessarily stay, but never mind. I do have photos, but perhaps I'll wait until others have posted better ones first...

We talked about campaigning and about blogging, its uses, its limitations, its potential, and talked about whether we actually cared that some commentators are still obsessed with the idea that Labour 'doesn't get' blogging, and that there must be some kind of lesson in what happens in the USA, or what the Conservatives do. I believe the majority position is that we don't particularly care about either, and my own view remains that there is potential for Labour (and progressive forces in general) to develop a network - both large and strong - of small, community-grounded blogging activists and councillors.

Well, it's a vision of sorts, and I've seen worse ones. Andrew Brown has more, and I love this.