Buck Palace and Houses of Parliament

Was in London Wed eve and Thursday last week. Picked a nice day for it...
Wednesday evening was the LibDem Parliamentary Candidates Association reception on the Terrace in the House. Handful of MPs and Lords on hand. Hectic 15 mins of following CK round and getting shots of him and various people. CK gave a good speech, interesting comments about the internal review of structure.
I still don't think Conference is at fault for the policies it passes, as the policies have on the main received the seal of approval of the Federal Policy Committee (chair: C Kennedy). On anything contraversial at conference, the hall is never empty, so it can't be said that the only 2 men (wearing sandals, and beards affixed) and a dog have ratified our policies.
Mark Hunter, the new Cheadle MP was also there, so managed to say congratulations. Probably didn't recognise several other new MPs, indeed was chatting to Lorely Burt (Solihull) and had no idea that next to us was Steve Williams (Bristol SW), who looks very unparliamentarian.
Thursday morning saw England off to a good start in the first morning of the ashes, and then off to Whitehall to do some photos of me outside Downing St. Took ages to get the right photograph...then back to Parliament to get photos there.
The entire time there were a large number of various vehicles with blue lights and sirens whizzing through parliament sq, and from Scotland Yard. Many seemed to be going in opposite directions, and some we saw going round in circles...
Only later realised that there was something afoot.
Proceeded to the Palace for the garden party in the afternoon. Felt very safe in the surroundings of the garden, really quite isolated from the outside world. Just had to ignore the two police marksmen on the roof of the palace with huge binoculars.
The garden was quite wonderful, with plenty of shade. Food was also top notch, and following tips from dad quickly found how to avoid queuing for too long...Don't jump in straight away, and go as close as reasonably possible to the playing of the national anthem.
Managed to bump into all my fellow birmingham LibDem councillors, and even met someone else: Ali Goldsworthy, who had was with her mum (you can take any sons/daughters between 18-25!). Had only recently spent an afternoon with Ali in Cheadle as we were out campaigning with the PPC. Her other half was the PPCs minder/driver.