A few days ago, I got an email from my colleagues at GAD about a seminar on effective political campaigning for disabled people. I initially discounted going: as interesting as it sounded, this week would be mad enough as it stood. But then I thought it might be a useful distraction from fretting about the referendum, it wouldn’t be that hard to get to and I might learn something. So I went.

I’m just on my way back from what proved to be a fascinating afternoon. Five other people, all much more experienced activists than me, attended. It was hosted by a very knowledgable former civil servant, and was basically a presentation cum discussion on the best ways of lobbying members of parliament. Most of the time I just sat and listened, trying to remember as much as I could. I did AS level politics, but this was stuff from an insider who knew the ins and outs of Westminster. Most interesting for me was the idea that social media is becoming increasingly important: when that came up, mentioned my blog, and the others seemed pretty interested in it.

What’s more, I made some pretty valuable contacts up there this afternoon, including the speaker herself. I’m very glad I went. I learned a lot and made friends. I sometimes feel pretty impotent politically; this afternoon helped assuage that feeling a bit. And while it didn’t stop me fretting about thursday completely, it calmed me down and made me feel a little less like the world might end come Friday morning.