News in Brief...

In a roundup of the last week's events, there sadly isn't a great deal I can offer. This is due large part to having caught a bad cold (or man flu as my colleagues would call it) and spent the week laid up at my parents in sunny Norfolk. And when I wasn't tucked into my duvet watching the short-lived noughties sci fi TV series Firefly, (a real gem if you like Westerns), I was busy writing my work-based project for my "Certificate in Personnel Practice".

I've never been a strong one for slick, well presented essays bound in all manner of plasticy goodness and sprinkled with tasteful excel pie charts. I'd rather spend 36 hours pulling something together that resembles the handiwork of an incontinent spider and allow the rest of my life for more exciting things like getting a cold. Nevertheless, I'm happy with my effort. Let's hope it's good enough for the CIPD.

This evening I've just returned from a delivery session up in Blackheath Westcombe ward - basically the local action teams help each other raise their profile within their areas since it makes the task of seeing everyone in Greenwich much easier. Thursday looks set to be a busy day of encouraging anyone I can find to get out and vote in the European elections. Turnout is expected to be extremely low, with antipathy over MPs expenses running high.

To anybody reading this, I would ask you to please go to the polling station and mark your ballot, even if only to spoil it in protest. When you think of the sacrifices people made to earn us all the right to vote, it seems sad that people opt to not vote at all.