Sorry for the paucity of posting for the last couple of weeks. I was running around like a headless chicken for the week before Scottish conference, and since I came back I’ve had a horrid cold. Very irritating, since I have lots of uni work to do, but so be it. That should also explain why this post is so disjointed and difficult to read – I’ve got a mild fever and so may be hallucinating slightly.

Anyway, Scottish conference was fantastic. It was just fantastic. Bits were hectic, bits were worrying, but the whole package was of a very high quality. At least 30 LYS people were there, whether or not we knew them beforehand. I was told by a friend that at one point, one of the hardened BBC hacks filming proceedings took off his headset and asked “Where are you getting all these young people?” I think that officially makes the Lib Dems the party of the young.

Both of our motions were passed as well. Tom and I were moving and summating (respectively) the Minimum Income Guarantee motion, which was passed unanimously. I’m really keen that we use this as a springboard and get a strong campaign going for Freshers’ week this year.

The Blood Ban motion was a little more controversial – there were two amendments; one by concerned individuals, the other by policy committee. That would’ve been difficult enough, but there was a reference back as well. There was a danger of the whole thing collapsing into a procedural mishmash, but Shabnum’s (first time) chairing was fantastic, and she kept the whole thing under control.

Sophie’s already difficult task of summating that contentious motion seemed to be turning into a nightmare – the sheer number of nuanced, varied and at times highly personal and heartfelt contributions to the debate would’ve overwhelmed a lesser speaker. But she went with it and gave a skillful and intelligent summation in what must have been utterly terrifying circumstances. The reference back was heavily defeated, amendment one carried narrowly and amendment two & the motion passed near unanimously. It’s amazing to know that we’ve had an effect on the policy of the party, but even better realising that this could actually happen. The blood ban’s one of those issues that just needs someone to go first – the other parties can’t really justify blocking a consultation.

There were some other great debates as well. The motion on more powers for the Scottish parliament was extraordinarily well represented – Callum Leslie gave a very confident and powerful off-the-cuff intervention, and Robert Brown’s speech to move the motion hit just the right note. I like the use of “Home Rule” in describing our settlement – it has a clear, defined meaning and ensures we don’t have to explain federalism every time we tell people what we want for Scotland. And who doesn’t want to remember the Liberal glory days of the late 1800s? We should probably keep the whole welfare state thing though.

Sunday was a particularly good day, from my perspective at least. I was shocked when Martin Hayman pulled me aside a few minutes before the awards ceremony and told me I’d won the Russell-Johnston award for best intervention, for my MIG debate summation! I didn’t deserve it; I thought it was an alright speech, but it barely summed up the debate (which had been very one-sided anyway, because we were correct. )

Whatever trickery led to me winning, it was a great honour to get up on stage and collect the award from Audrey Finlay, the convenor of the party. Reading the engraved winners’ plate afterwards, I found out that Tavish won it in 1999, Ross Finnie in 1992, Alistair Carmichael in 2008 and Jim Wallace in 1998, among many other luminaries. Jesus Christ did that make me feel big-headed.

As if I wasn’t unbearably self-important enough, I’d been given the opportunity to do a radio spot with Mike Rumbles at 3 o’clock, which, as a shameless self-promoter, I leapt at. So at 3 I turned up at the truly miniscule caravan the BBC had brought along, and squeezed in alongside Mike, Kit Fraser (the interviewer), and Brian Taylor (towards whom I was rather starstruck).

I reckon my performance is best described as not utterly disastrous. I waffled through the whole thing, particularly when asked why I joined the party (it’s actually pretty simple – I thought Nick Clegg was brave when he admitted he didn’t believe in God – but I wanted to give a bigger answer, which didn’t come off well). The only tough question I got was about the Glasgow East by-election – Ian was a great candidate, so why didn’t he break through there? I wish I’d mentioned the Anniesland by-election in 1999, but instead I talked about us not having enough time to put our message across. Thankfully, there was no follow-up question about Glenrothes…

So that’s a rambling journey through my weekend. I’m going to return to work on my Ecology project now, but when I inevitably get bored I think I’ll do a Liberal Youth post, because it’s so much fun to think about that.