Getting to the B4L Meeting - no comments

If you're coming to the meeting on Monday, at Committee Room 8 of the House of Commons, you can find directions here.

I'd suggest arriving at Westminster tube, followed by a careful crossing of Bridge Street amid a throng of Russian tourists. You should then head around the corner towards St Stephen’s entrance - (6) on the Colour Map referred-to above - where you will be met by barriers, sentry boxes, and policemen. You will have to speak to a policeman in order to gain admittance, and I suggest you say something like:

"I'm here for a bloggers' meeting in Committee Room 8"

And if that doesn't register, and/or you're asked which member is running it, you should simply say:

"Tom Watson MP"

You'll be pointed towards a Portakabin (well, some kind of a stand-alone, relocatable building), where a quick bag-scan and pat-search will take place. Within a minute or two you'll be inside the Palace of Westminster, in front of Reception, where you should ask for Committee Room 8. Repeat the sentences above if you have to. If we can arrange a guide, we will.

07906 123390 is the number to call (after 6.00 pm, please) if you need guidance.

B4L General Assembly, London, 23 April - 4 comments

All Labour bloggers and elected members are invited to an event on Monday, 23 April, at Committee room 8 in the House of Commons. If you haven't visited before, I've only been once, and it wasn't a problem. Start time is yet to be confirmed, but I think 7.00 pm is a safe bet. The meeting will last no longer than two hours, and we can accommodate 50 people.

An agenda will be distributed shortly, but it can be summarised as:

"How can we make Bloggers4Labour the most useful resource it can possibly be for the growing Labour blogosphere, especially at election-time?"

This is your big chance, so please bring your selves, your thoughts, and your questions. Until the agenda appears, you can start by reading this, or heading onto the forum and looking here and here.

Guest speaker: again, to be confirmed. Let me know if you have suggestions or volunteers.

Update: Could people indicate, one way or another, if they think they'll be coming, and - if so - whether they'd be able to help out on the night?

Update II: OK, the agenda is here: http://bloggers4labour.wikispaces.com/assemblyAgenda

The Knowledge - 4 comments

Sorry for the light posting; to give myself a bit more time to think of something to say about the Budget (comments here are thoughtful), or indeed anything else of importance in the world, please try to be satisfied with this:

Among the debris I collected from drawers at my former workplace was the following business card (you may speculate as to why I tore one end off) from Cozy's Bar & Restaurant ("The original City Wine Bar"), 11 Sun Street, London. Click for a larger version.



Kudos to the first reader to spot something a little odd about the map printed on the reverse - odd, given that I picked up the card in either Christmas 2005 or Christmas 2006, and it has an email address (AOL) printed on the other side. Anybody?

Social starts shortly - 1 comment

I'm leaving for the B4L social shortly. Here's what to look out for, if you're coming too. Directions are here.

Bloggers4Labour Social V - 4 comments

Just a reminder, this will take place on Thursday, January 25th in London.

Update (21/01): This is the plan: we're going to meet up in The Lord Moon Of The Mall [map] in Whitehall, London, from 7.00 pm.

We held the 2nd B4L get-together there last February, so I hope you won't mind if I direct you to last year's post, where you'll find directions and Google Earth maps to the venue.

It was a tad busy last year, but with a little perseverance we were able to accommodate two tables-worth of bloggers comfortably. It's a perfectly decent pub, and while it might have made a change to go to The Salisbury, a series of petty/pedantic/hostile reviews at BeerInTheEvening (which I'm no longer going to use as any kind of guide) made it too much of a gamble, considering I haven't been for a couple of years, and need to keep at least a dozen bloggers in the manner to which they're accustomed.

I hope to see as many bloggers as possible on Thursday. We had a good time, last year, and I'm sure we will again.

I've added an entry for this event in our Events Diary.

Thanks to people who've offered to help us organise get-togethers around the country. I'll be in touch shortly, so we can get some more events organised.

Brighton Bloggers / B4L Social - 7 comments

The many Brighton/Hove/Portslade bloggers out there (I can think of 7 leftish political ones off the top of my head) might be interested in the upcoming Brighton Bloggers meetup on Tuesday 23rd. I attended my first in Summer 2004 (under a different moniker) and will be going to this one, hopefully with a few guests.

On that note, there will be a 5th Bloggers4Labour social in London in January. I'm going to start out by proposing that on Thursday, January 25th we - Labour bloggers, and as many of us as possible - meet up at one of the following pubs:

• The Salisbury (a former after-work favourite), WC2N 4AP
• The Coal Hole, WC2R 0DW
• The Chandos, WC2N 4ER
• Or, moving a little closer to the equator, the Lord Moon Of The Mall (venue of our 2nd get-together), SW1A 2DY

As usual, leave a comment (or drop me a mail) to say if that's do-able, or to make other suggestions. I don't have a problem with moving forward a week, or a day or two, if that suits people better.