Last Saturday was Lewisham People's Day at Mountsfield Park.  Among other things, i did a stint at the Be A Councillor stand, encouraging people to think about putting themselves forward as local council candidates. Not without some success: got quite a few people to put themselves on the list to receive further information and possibly attend an event to tell them more about it. Or perhaps they signed up just to stop me pestering them.

One thing that might put them off is the image that local politicians have.  In general, we get along pretty well across party lines and do the job pretty preofessionally.  But  I fear the public's suspicions would be confirmed if they saw how we sometimes behave at Full Council meetings: at best childish, at worst intimidating to those of a nervous disposition.  The June meeting, I felt, was rather bad, and I made my views known afterwards in the appropriate quarters.

The July meeting last Wednesday was better tempered, although I might have got myself into some trouble with my own party by voting for a Lib Dem motion on the health service but speaking in a way which some might have interpreted as being mildly critical of it, in parts.  I just wanted to make the point that i wasn't personally opposed to private sector involvement in the health service if that delivered better results for patients and better value for money.

But rumours of my imminent defection to the Labour Party, or the Greens, or the Conservatives, are greatly exaggerated. 

All part of the fun of Being A Councillor.