Josh's Blog

So, my first day at my first party conference. It went something like this:

Oh-eight-forty-one Southwest trains service to Bournemouth. Was delayed by 20 minutes, then somehow on time again. Arrived at ten-forty-five, as scheduled.

£3.30 Taxi to actually very respectable Ramada Encore hotel where I’m staying, courtesy of the party. They didn’t know I was staying there, but apparently they do now, so I should have somewhere to sleep: win!

Arrived at late accreditation (my pass application got lost first time around) to collect my pass. This should have been very simple, but apparently mine wasn’t working properly so I had to wait. For two and a half hours. Met several interesting people, and wandered off to get some food. Heaven knows why reprinting a pass takes that long, but never mind.

Wandered up to the Highcliff Hotel, in the secure zone, where I’m working. A little surreal bumping into secretaries of state left right and centre (given how few of them there are, it’s surprising how much this happens.) I saw Alistair Darling at the station, Ruth Kelly held the door for me on the way in to the hotel, and walked down to the conference centre with Jacqui Smith. All very odd.

I spent most of the day running up and down the hill chasing after video questions for ministers, and running random errands. I missed our interview of Alistair D, which was a shame, but there’ll be plenty more to do through the week.

Anyway, I’m in the office now for a while, doing bits and bobs with videos and the website. I’ll be off in search of a lucky fringe event to feed me soon, and then it’ll be time for all the free lash. It’s all about getting in to that conference groove!

Well, I spoke to the boss today, to address some of the concerns I’d been having about work recently (short backstory: I’m working as an intern at Labour head office, and after two weeks have done little more than filing and other basic, temp job style tasks.)  He’s going to get a bit more project work for me to do, which is good, and speak to my immediate line manager about that tomorrow (he wasn’t in today), and try and generally get a bit more of a structure to my internship, to avoid a thoughtless last minute “there’s something basic that needs doing, give it to the intern). This is obviously a good thing, and we’re going review things again next week.

Apparently there isn’t usually much to do at this time of year, because it’s very politician-driven work, but that does beg the question of why they would take me at this time of year. I didn’t raise that, and I didn’t raise my concerns about over-cautiousness with letting me correspond with people. They currently check everything I write to outside organisations and internal people, which is a little demoralising – I’ve plenty of experience dealing with that kind of thing, I’m sure I could be trusted to email non-political support organisations without too many problems.

There is of course the dilemma that I’m sure all Labourites in my place have to come to terms with: that the party they believe in, for policies like the minimum wage, doesn’t live up to their own preachings, and that so few political internships are paid minimum wage, or even all expenses (I’m spending £1.50 of my own money on travel each day, and £2-2.50 on lunch, which isn’t much, but that’s living close to London on no wages, so it’s pretty difficult – another reason why I’m so annoyed about recent boredom.)

Money isn’t actually a motivator to me: it helps when I’m doing something boring, but all it really does is help me get up and go to it again, with dread, each day. I’m motivated by interesting work, achievement (whether it’s recognised or not doesn’t matter too much) and personal development of a meaningful kind. Money is a necessity,  and it’s nice to have a bit more than I need, but money in itself doesn’t particularly motivate me to work harder, longer, or better.

The other thing that motivates me is working for something I believe in. That obviously takes a hit when the Labour party won’t pay the minimum wage they so rightly introduced. I mean, I know the parties are all broke, but would budgeting for a few interns (well under £50k a year, given how few there are in head office right now) really break the bank?

Anyway, with any luck I should start feeling like I’m doing something useful, and feeling a little less underused and undervalued over the next few weeks: watch this space