All councilled out... (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

All councilled out...

5:34pm Wednesday 15th October 2008

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I think I am officially all councilled out.

I went to three separate council functions yesterday alone, the most recent of which being a joint scrutiny committee meeting. It was still going on at 10 o'clock when I left with a stomach ache and if I'm honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it's still going on now.

There's something inherently futile about gathering sixty people together who all have something they want to talk about (at length) at 7.30 in the evening. It's just never going to work. There's no way every question will be answered and there's no way everyone will get to say their piece - unless they really do go on all night.

Mind you, some fairly interesting things did come out of it, which, naturally, dear reader(s), you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out about. It was a bit of a shame there were so many interesting things in fact, particularly from the representatives of the Youth Independent Advisory Group, as we had to cut a fair amount of it from the final article. They had some eye-opening things to say on stop-and-search operations and knife possession, but in the end we only had room for one quote. Still, I'd wager they'll go far, so I'm sure we'll hear from them again soon.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind getting it all together in time for deadline today. Mistakenly believing the information was to go in next week's paper, I thought I'd have the morning to look over my notes and make some decisions about what to write. Quite why I thought that, I now can't remember, but never mind. Today has been a lesson in getting copy out as quickly and as tightly as possible and I think I just about managed it. It did, however, shock me into realising just how cushy it is working for a weekly paper, in terms of deadlines anyway.

While we do have daily deadlines to meet, it's not quite such an end of the world moment if a story has to be finished off the next morning - provided the next morning isn't Wednesday. Which it was today. So I had a little taste of what it's like to work for a daily - go to a meeting on Tuesday, bang out two stories from it in an hour on Wednesday.

I've also been out on a council-backed litter enforcement operation - a jolly exercise in bothering teenagers - and the launch of their new Women Together initiative. It was all very worthy and high-minded and such but I was thinking about other things. Encouraging women to be empowered and become actively involved in public life? Forget that. I was in it for the free lunch.

Which brings me neatly to the events of Monday evening. The whole office (more or less) trooped down to the Star of India in Leytonstone for a free curry to celebrate their 30th birthday and the night ended in what is now a YouTube classic, involving Cobra beer, a belly dancer and someone who was clearly feeling no pain. I won't publish the link but I'm sure a lot of people know exactly what I'm talking about...