I got this letter the other day, inviting me to meet Tony Blair during his visit to Crawley to see our college. Normally I would not be able to make it because of work, but I just happened to be on a course which would finish early enough for me to make it, so I accepted.

The purpose of the visit was (I think) for the PM to be at the official launch of the new Central Sussex College, which is a new entity formed by merging several existing colleges in the county. The Crawley site is the most impressive as it has two new buildings, including the one which does a lot of the building trades training.

After the official business there was a short meeting with local members and a few from further afield. We had a young chap from Horsham, a couple of Brighton members and some Unison members from Canterbury , but mostly it was Crawley CLP members. It was very much a flying visit, squeezed in before the PM had to go and catch his train home in time for Thatcher’s birthday party (I do hope they give her the bumps. Eighty times) and was really to discuss regeneration in the party.

One thing which was mentioned was how to make party involvement interesting and accessible to younger members. It seemed like the sort of thing which will develop more as time goes on, and will probably antagonise a lot of older members and really revolves around the question of whether the whole paradigm of branch meetings, constituency meetings, etc. is the best way to continue in the age of the internet. Although its a valid question I can’t help mentally taking it to the extreme and imagining a party where meetings are all replaced by flash mobs.

I took a couple of photos and this one, although not very good, is the only one I am anywhere near happy with. It reminds me that I really must RTFM for the camera. I know it can adjust well to low light settings and take decent pictures indoors without a flash by changing the ISO, aperture and exposure but keep forgetting that it will use a longer exposure to do that and be more prone to shaking. At the very least I need to either use the flash, even though its more disruptive, or do more to steady the camera – especially if I am using the optical zoom.