by Paul O'Brien
Saturday 09 September 2006
The annual dinner and service awards take place and we are fortunate to be joined at West Ham by two Government Ministers, Angela Smith from the DCLG and Stephen Timms from the Treasury. Over 600 people are present and its quite daunting doing the vote of thanks as its also being filmed and is shown on over 30 large plasma screens dotted around the hall. Crack a joke about whether both Ministers are still in post in light of the resignation of 8 junior ministers the previous day, the audience appear to appreciate this and it settles me down. The sky news reader Lucy Alexander presents the evening and she is first class one of the best APSE has used.
The awards go quite smoothly and the atmosphere is electric all night, the dance floor is packed and the last revellers don't leave until 2am. At this point we find the last energy reserves and head off to the outgoing National Chair, Ron Manleys room to celebrate our collective success.
