i thought i should report back on the downing street visit – it was quite an experience, and having had time to reflect a few things still stand out:
surrealism: steve and i were ushered into a side room on arrival – privileged to be part of a select group of 5 out of the 150 present who had been invited to personally meet the prime minister and lord mandelson. (a blue sticker on your name badge indicated your special status) i remember turning to steve and admitting i was finding this all a bit surreal. he concurred. i have to admit it felt quite good to follow the PM out into the main rooms with everyone looking and rushing to shake his hand. we played it cool scarborough, we played it cool.
charisma: everyone asks what the prime minister is really like. as you might have heard elsewhere he is surprisingly charismatic, affable and witty in real life. his speech was delivered without notes and peppered with a couple of jokes about recession – perhaps a tad risky in a room full of small business owners but those assembled seemed to appreciate his honesty. he came across very well – the tv cameras really do hate him.
rush: it was also clear though that his life is probably planned to the second, with his arrival imminent we had to down glasses and (quickly! and in the right order!) line up ready and waiting. and he was ushered away immediately after his speech to vote in the new speaker of the house. it was clear that any hopes of actually having a conversation with him were a tad naive – our meeting was a handshake, thanks for what we were doing and small talk as we were photographed. but by the time the speech was under way steve and i were happily loitering at the back, glowing slightly and enjoying a glass of wine thinking what the heck – how many people get personally thanked by the PM?
message: but before it sounds like we just went down and attempted to drink some of our taxes back, be assured that we did make some serious effort getting scarborough’s message across to government ministers and staff. what was a real surprise was how genuinely nice the government people were and how much they knew about us. several people – including rosie winterton, minister for regional economic development and minister for yorkshire who recognised us from across the room – made an effort to come up and say how impressed they were with scarborough winning with european enterprise awards. we were made to feel rather special and certainly felt very proud to be representing the town.
art: after chatting with some other entrepreneurs (all equally bemused at their invitation) and after speaking to journalists we then wandered around looking at the state rooms and the art on the walls. an interesting mix – there’s a whole other blog post on that topic to come i suspect.
after: we did the obligatory posing for a photo in front of the iconic door and then steve and i went for a couple of pints opposite the houses of parliament and reflected on the evening. strangely i think my overriding memory of the evening will be the arriving. having to turn up without an invitation when everybody else had one (just say your name on the gate, they said), going through the security check and then being left to wander up downing street to the door of number 10 keeping a careful eye on the policeman with the machine gun just in case i looked as out of place as i felt. it was a bit like walking through the other side of a mirror.
