Conference!

Yes people, its that time of the year, when journalists travel around the country, and spend lots of their company's money on chatting to and viewing various parties in action, its CONFERENCE SEASON!

First up of the big UK parties, its the Lib Dems. Now for those of you who know me well, and know what I am like, Conference to me, is a culmination of all of the eccentric aspects of Matt King, rolled into one, at once place and at one time. BARGAIN!

First, however I am going to start off with the negative, cost. Now sadly these things cost. Cost of entry, accommodation and transportation. My personal best on transportation was Brighton 07. Door to door, return I spent less than £13! My rail ticket was a disgustingly cheap £10.60 each way. Young-person's discount of course, and then there was the connecting bus on the way bk from Temple Meads, as I was not gonna hang around for over an hr for a connecting train to Sea Mills, a journey that takes 20mins once the train is leaving BTM. This year, its a little bit further to go, and because I only realised i could just about afford it, I thought, what the hey, I'll treat myself, as I haven't been to a single Lib Dem Conference in over a year and half. So through virtues of the internet, I worked out that it was cheaper to go by public transport, and that going on a MegaBus to manchester, and then grab a connecting train from Piccadilly, would get me there for a reasonable price, around the £13 mark. On the way back, its train all the way, changing at Birmingham. Now if i had booked this as a single ticket, it would cost me £30-61, booking at two tickets cost a little less than £17. That my friends is what they call a bobby dazzler!
The next cost is conference itself. Now, the early bird booking is before the 28th July. I didn't know then if I was going to be employed at that stage, and so couldn't book as I couldn't know if i could be classed as a claimant or not. Since I did not get the Derby Job, and York have not corresponded with me at all, I know that do qualify to be a claiment, so that cost is £34. For that, I get, well you'll see.

So, moving onto the positives. WO! Hold your horses Matt, what about accommodation? What is that gonna cost you this year? Well dear readers, this year it will cost me £0, zilch, zip, nowt, nothing. How come? Well, I have a family friend who lives in Liverpool, who other than being a brainy Dr, good looking, charming, and just as much of a chatterbox as I am, is also a saint for offering me this virtue. So there's the first positive of the week.
The second one is, its conference. It a collection of several thousand lib dems all in one place. I shall say no more on that.
The third, all the food and drinks at all the fringe meetings, is, well quite frankly, complimentary. BARGAIN! I am a man who is known for loving food, is known for loving drinks, and is known for loving free stuff. Here I have three for the price of, well, none! I am what is known as a proud fringe-troffer! (See http://waleshome.org/2009/09/the-a-to-z-of-party-conferences/ for details. NB: if the link is not clickable, just copy and paste into the address bar of your browser)
the fourth and final positive, conference for the Lib Dems is where we make our policy, where we outline who we are and what we stand for, and while for the first time in years, I shan't be a voting rep, I shall still be letting my representatives know how I feel on each of the policies up for debate, and I shall probably put in the odd speakers card for things too.

My fifth and final reason for loving conference is, its a break from all mundane aspects of normal life, its like a holiday that you do important stuff on, and hopefully, and although i don't like the its not what you know... philosophy, I will hopefully find someone who is in need of someone like me for a job!