Committees, Raffles and Beer

There are perhaps two or three things a Liberal Democrat likes beyond all others; committees (note the plural), raffles (again the plural) and beer. And whilst I'm not for one moment condoning excessive alcohol intake, I maybe should have said beers.

I, and another LY rep have just returned from a good committee.

Occasionally there are times when you have to say "screw the rulebook, we're going to do what is right", and tonight was one of those nights. The local party executive had to make a decision, not a giant one like 40% cuts or where we stand on academies, but, on whether we could dole out punishment for a problem we only noticed after all was done and dusted and lived happily ever after.

No-one shall be enslaved by ignorance, I like that (paraphrased) line in our constitution. It means we don't hurt others for what they've blindly done to us, and we help them out rather than punish them when they do. An eye for an eye makes us all blind.

So we decided not to punish the gentleman involved, but to help him out- give him a second chance- and pray he's free for delivering the newspaper sometime next week. As a local party we've learnt some vital lessons, but as people, i think we did what was right. After tonight's meeting, I'm proud my local party and of my Lib Dem membership card.

I know I've revealed no details of what happened, and you may be thinking what was the point of this post, but it's simple.

Tonight, I like the Liberal Democrats. Because say what you want about us, we've got a heart.

And with that, I'm off to get another beer.