Rather a long Perrymount School meeting (at the top of the hill), so I got to the Perry Vale Labour Party branch meeting (at the bottom of the hill) just as they were all adjourning to The Telegraph. Gavin was just leaving, and I'm sorry I missed being able to talk with him at the meeting. Apparently he's now got much more time to do things locally, so I expect we'll soon see him volunteering to be Branch Secretary or something.

PJ found us in the pub, and had just come from the inaugural meeting (you may need to join the SE23.com Forum to read that) of the prototype Forest Hill Society. (I understand from previous online discussion that councillors and similar pro-bigmouths weren't welcome at this meeting - I don't blame them!). I'll join as soon as they decide they're open for business, as long as some lawyer doesn't start telling me it's "a predjudicial interest" and would compromise me being able to make planning decisions about anywhere in Forest Hill.

(Some of this 'probity in public office' stuff is really designed for the Poulson era, or some place in Britain that must be a lot more rife with corruption than Lewisham! It seems to confuse taking an interest in things locally (=good) with having an interest in them (=bad), and then assume that nobody is capable of making an unbiased decision about anything that they know anything about!)