Last night I went to Theydon Bois (pronounced boys). I had often see the name on the tube map one stop before the end of the Central Line but not visited before. The journey took about one and three quarter hours – and the chair of the local Epping Lib Dems came to pick me up at the station – for which I was grateful as it was pitch black and country when I got off the tube! I was there to speak at the local party’s AGM – and to tell the story of how we won Hornsey & Wood Green.

It is stirring stories for Lib Dems and seems funny to me now that it is a model for how to change an areas political allegiances – at the time, the team and I just were doing what seemed logical and right – but retrospectively it was a bit of a journey.

Which reminds me – I hear that the Lib Dem Campaigns Director (and local resident, whose wife Sheila is a Haringey Councillor as of May) Paul Rainger is leaving for pastures green. So I would like to pay public tribute to Paul who is so talented at campaigns and who we will miss and to thank him for all the help he has given me over these years. I couldn’t imagine Paul ever doing anything else but campaigns somehow – but at least now – he will undoubtedly have much more time to deliver leaflets – and perhaps stand for Council or other elected posts himself!

UPDATE: One of the Epping members, Neil Woollcott, has a blog on which he’s posted about the event here.