DailyKeith going to work

Last night I heard that Ed Milliband, the leader of the Labour Opposition in Parliament would be visiting Stroud on Friday and holding a public meeting in the Subscription Rooms.  A colleague wondered whether we could alter the time of our meeting at the council offices, which would clash, but we decided against it.

Helena and I then went for supper last night at the Amberley Inn and had a good meal.  Whilst there I noticed that a small party of people who were using the adjacent room for a meal included the well known local businessman who started the Ecotricity power company, which has now become a major player in the power utilities business based on green energy.  I then noticed that sitting beside him was Ed Milliband, and realised he had come to Stroud early for his meetings.

I made contact later last night with my good friend DailyKeith, who was the person who introduced me to Blipfoto back in 2010.  I knew that Keith was working on a project for his photography degree whereby he was following David Drew, who was the former MP for Stroud and is now the local Labour party candidate in the UK's next General Election.  I asked Keith about the times of the big meeting at the Subscription Rooms and when he told me I realised I might be able to get some pictures of Ed Milliband's arrival before I needed to leave for my own meeting being held just across the road.

So I headed into town a bit early and inquired from the police on security duty about the likely time for his arrival, only to find that there were delays.  So I stood by the main entrance to see what would happen.  Then Keith arrived with a senior member of the local Labour party and I managed to get a couple of snaps of him arriving for work.

We had a chat and I heard about how his project was going, which he will continue with right up the the Election in May, as part of his degree projects.  Tonight Keith sent me an email saying the meeting went well, and I had watched it featured on the local TV news earlier this evening.  They pointed out that David Drew had disagreements with the leader and the way the party was working, but it was all handled amicably, in public.

Keith told me he had put a couple of today's pictures on his Flickr gallery and I really like his picture of Ed Milliband here.  He has also posted a Blip today,  which is well worth viewing and you can read about his day.