Out of the Loop
Work has had me on a roller-coaster ride of supporting meetings in various locations over the last few days which has meant being out of the domestic news loop.
Tuesday was the strangest day when I had to call someone in London and they started talking about a) a Conservative MP defecting to Labour (a surprise to everyone), b) Tony Blair resigning as an MP (not so unexpected but still big news), and c) my home city of Sheffield being heavily flooded (more than a little disconcerting).
The fact that on Wednesday the political leadership of the country changed with a whimper rather than a bang as I was passing through Birmingham airport was an anti-climax after this.
It still did a feel a little weird that such momentous changes could happen entirely in the Westminster bubble without the involvement of anyone much outside. A meeting in central London on Wednesday night with people who are more closely engaged in that world reminded me of the difference between being inside the tent looking out (as I used to be) and outside the tent looking in (as I now am).
