Some of you have noticed that I have been a little quiet in blogging since the end of the Livingston by election. There are two reasons for this.
First obviously is the fact that the by election itself took a fair amount out of me, as it also did the rest of the local party activists.
Second however, is that within a week of the by election my fiancée of five years sat me down to say that while she still liked me as a friend she no longer saw herself as able to remain my fiancée.
While I admit having two Westminster campaigns in twelve months is not ideal for a non-political partner this was not the reason for the spilt. As aluded to in an earlier post she has started a job over on the west coast which had led me to think about my future. Mainly this thinking occured whilst out actually delivering leaflets as this was the only time I had for such activities.
Whilst I was prepared to consider making a fresh start in a new region and new local party she said this wouldn’t be fair to me, to her or to the local party here. She said quite rightly that I have built up in my four years in West Lothian a good network both in the local party and indeed in Edinburgh. That I am standing at the edge of possibly winning an election, for the local council, in a couple of years. She knows that while she hates the amount of time that political campaigning takes up to be good and successful I need to put that amount of time in, because is the kind of caring politician I am.
She got engaged to me when she was young, she was still at University, while I was a good few years older. While I had already found out who I was and what my passions were she had never really had that chance to be her own person away from her parents or from any other connection. She is seeing this opportunity eventually to move to live on the West coast with her new job as a chance to do just that. She hasn’t ruled out that I might be the anwser she is looking for but she also can’t rule it in.
She still loves the fact that if I commit to something I give my all to it. That was one of the things that attracted her to me in the first place. However, she does not share that passion and while she knows it is important to me she cannot yet bear to have that as a regular occurance every two years.
So what does that mean for me? Well quite possibly I’ll being giving more time than even I was planning to to the 2007 campaign; giving myself an even better chance of getting elected. So I will continue in my quest for the council seat I’ve been pencilled in for since 2003. I’ll be looking for the party to achieve as many Lib Dem councillors in West Lothian as we can manage. Currently we're on the outlook for a few more good people to fight the new wards and to represent them after that.
But I still also have a very good friend who has been the biggest part of my life for the last five years. Who encouraged me to get involved with the local party while she was studying and working elsewhere and who has still promised to act as my devils advocate on areas of policy. Who also has more faith and hope in how far I can go than I do at times
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