Last night I had a fabulous meal of bangers and mash at the Firehouse restaurant on Waterloo Road. Yum.

And this morning I returned to The Reef here in the Waterloo East train station for a session of blogging and strong coffee. (Both those thumbs are linked to larger versions on p. 6 of the photo album.)

I’ve got a noon meeting to debrief the trip with my colleagues Milica Howell and Ross Ferguson at Hansard Society (Milica, center, above). I’ll try to get the names of Mil’s two supervisors in this photo from last Friday’s seminar.

1:30 PM update from Heathrow: That’s Angelo Evangelou on the left; Barry Griffiths on right. Good to see y’all again, gents. You, too, Ross!

Scott and I shared the presentation podium last week at Westminster House with Clive Soley, longtime blogger, and a Labour MP for Ealing Acton & Shepherds Bush in the House of Commons.

Clive and I chatted before his presentation and when I told him about our time-limited community web forums in Northfield, he told me about his idea for something similar with elected representatives in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, etc.

I see now that he’s posted to his blog about this.

I saw in the New York Times last week The Latest Initiative in Congress: Blogging that some members of Congress in the US are actually blogging, not just using them for their election campaigns. Maybe I’ll see if my old gofast.net colleague Mike O’Connor, who I’ll see later this week at a party, can help us get to US Senator Norm Coleman about this.

Last week, Scott and I met with Detective Superintendent Mike Alderson at the Home Office, akin to our FBI with some Dept of Justice functions, too. Mike works with the Citizen Focused Policing Team of the Police Reform Unit there. We got to know him because he follows the blogs of Northfield Police Chief Gary Smith and Police Chief Dan Carlson in Eden Prairie. See Scott’s post about our meeting.

Mike has been talking about the advantages of weblogs to some of the heads of the BCU’s, Basic Command Units (the UK is divided up into approximately 285 of these regional policing divisions). He’s interested in how blogs could be used effectively with the local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), of which there are about 350.

Lastly, he wants to explore how blogs could complement the community policing seminars he teaches and presents at.

Last night I was having a fantastic dinner of bangers and mash at the Firehouse on Waterloo Road near my hotel and began reading the recently published “The World in 2005,” by The Economist, their annual state of the world issue with predictions for the upcoming year. In a piece titled “Minority report” by Trevor Phillips on integration in Britain, he writes about recent immigrants:

“The lessons of the past aren’t encouraging for their integration. It is only three years since Britain’s northern towns were rocked by riots between young Asians and the police. The summer of 2004 narrowly escaped similar clashes, this time with new migrants cooped up in small, suspicious provincial towns. Britain’s much-maligned Home Office, working with the grass-roots network of the Commission for Racial Equality, can claim some credit for anticipating trouble and stepping in before it took off.”

I wonder if Mike Alderson had anything to do with this? It sounds like it’s right up his alley. I guess I’ll find out.

This morning I snapped a few more photos of interesting alleys and buildings (bottom of page 5 in the photo album) in Blackheath Village before heading into London where I’ve booked a hotel for the night here in Westminster, across the street from Waterloo East train station.

I spend the afternoon doing the tourist bit. I knew all the famous government buildings would be closed but I did want to roam around a bit and orient myself to where we’d presented on Friday. No, we didn’t present in the House of Lords, but darn close! Tony Blair didn’t stop by to hear us, but hey, he could have! Charles, too, though he’s apparently having mother problems. We all can relate, can’t we?

This is the entrance to Westminster House at 7 Millbank where we made our presentation.

It’s just down the block and across the street from Parliament Square.

I tried for an artistic shot of one of the Parliament building towers.

See high-res versions of these and other typical tourism (yes, you can yawn and skip them) photos in the UK photo album, page 5 and 6. I would have taken more but the icy north wind was once again blowing hard and my paper clip shutter fingers didn’t last long.

My hotel doesn’t have wi-fi as advertised so I’m blogging this from The Reef, a cafe/bar overlooking the Waterloo East train station.

I didn’t anticipate the hectic nature of our UK trip.

Scott and I were always running from train to underground to train to bus to taxi to underground to train, just making our connections by the skin of our teeth while we hauled our luggage up and down stairs, rarely seeing a lift (elevator). On many days, we didn’t have time to eat breakfast or lunch so we just grabbed items from vendors in the train stations to take with us. We were in a different hotel nearly every night.

And our luggage was its own story. I knew my arms were in for a workout with my 9 pound laptop and 2 pound power supply in one carrying case, everything else in a rolling luggage case that must have weighed a good 60 pounds.

But Scott had 4 pieces, his laptop, a briefcase, a rolling luggage case like mine, plus the killer: a loaded garment bag. Whenever we had to make our way up or down a flight of stairs — typically several times a day — he’d fling on the two lighter cases, their straps crisscrossing his chest, and then grab the two heavy cases, one in each arm, and lug them with a mighty groan, like a guy in a Strong Man competition who has to get to the finish line with a monster weight at the end of each arm.

No matter what time of night or day it was, the trains were always packed. And wedging our way onto them with all this luggage made it all the more interesting, as did the narrow stairways packed with rushing commuters. Add in the occasional rain and snow and constant icy north wind and it was a situation ripe for tension.

Through it all, Scott never complained. He’d give me a momentary ugly look and then punctuate it with a laugh. It was traveler’s hell but somehow we were loving it.

Since neither of us had ever been in the UK before, the mad rush to make our appointments made it imperative to constantly aske for directions. Scott took this on, as I had a harder time understanding the English accent, especially with the roar of the trains and traffic. His sig file moniker — “Your Friendly City Manager” — must get conveyed by his face because people instantly would smile and eagerly help us. The English may be famously stoic but they always melted whenever he approached them.

Of course, his style really worked its magic when we met with our hosts in whatever city we visited. His knowledge of European football and his familiarity with global issues and history made for easy and interesting conversation with whomever we were with.

Yes, his Powerpoint presentation was excellent… I pretty much expected that, given that he’s making presentations constantly as a city manager.

But for me, his skill as a blogger, banging out quick and interesting stories and summaries of the day’s events whenever we’d manage an internet connection, was something I didn’t fully appreciate till the trip was almost over. We knew we had lots of people following our trip and for him to match me stride for stride on the blogging — well, I was amazed. We were not only preaching blogging, we were living it, modeling it, demonstrating its usefulness.

It was a feeling of teamwork under fire that I’ve not experienced since Jeff Holte and I dashed about the US on our “classroom telecom” trips for McGraw-Hill back in the late 80s.

Scott, you are a true colleague, now a good friend, and a public servant par excellence. Eden Prairie and the wider world of civic leadership bloggers is fortunate to have you.

Well-done, mate. You were brilliant. Splendid, in fact.

Let’s have a pint at a proper pub when I return, shall we?

I just had dinner at the Pizzeria Artigiande here in Blackheath Village tonight… the restaurant on the right. That’s the All Saints Parish Church in the background, home parish of Terry Waite.

I had a leisurely dinner of pizza and wine followed by tiramisu and coffee, reading news of the UK and the world from a British perspective. I did that this morning, too, at the Cafe Costa… and come to think of it, last night as well at Cafe Uno before roaming the streets of this quaint area… part of Councillor Andrew Brown‘s Lewisham ward. He deserves credit, I’m sure.

See high res versions of these and many more Blackheath Village photos towards the bottom of page 5 of the UK trip album.

Two of the people who’ve been doing a great deal of behind-the-scenes work for the ReadMyDay project, NorthLincsNet’s Sally Weaver (tech manager) and Joe Archer (tech guru) came to the seminar in London yesterday to give us some rah rah support.

Rep. Ray Cox just posted about the various articles in the media lately that have included coverage of his blog.

ReadMyDay blogger and Kingston Councillor Mary Reid with Ian Johnson, Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) at yesterday’s seminar in Westminster.

I later met with Ian to start exploring ways that blogging might be incorporated into some of the DCA government-citizen engagement projects, as his colleague at DCA, Natalie Cook (Senior Policy Officer, e-Democracy) had contacted me earlier in the week about it.

Scott and I made our presentations on civic leadership blogging to a gathering of ReadMyDay bloggers and other interested people yesterday at government building in Westminster, a borough in the heart of London.

Someone was there filming the whole thing and conducting interviews, though I never found out exactly who. I like this photo that Scott took of me presenting, as it shows a Powerpoint slide of the Northfield Civic Blogosphere project with photos of my civic leader blogging 101 class.

We shared the podium with Clive Soley, Member of Parliament and longtime blogger, shown here being introduced by our colleague Milica Howell from the Hansard Society.

It was a great venue. If you look close, you can see Scott in the center of the above photo.

For more photos of the gathering at 7 Millbank Street, see the UK Photo Album.

Councils should get blogging says e-Democracy e-Government Project

A group of learner bloggers has come together to be coached by experienced practitioners from Minnesota in the USA. With the help of coach Griff Wigley of ReadMyDay, officers and councillors from local authorities, are given guidance in the art of blogging. Participating councils include Kingston, NorthLincs Net (working in association with North Lincolnshire council) and Lewisham.

Soccer Bloggers’ Iron Will Satisfied

Two American visitors, who are more used to footballers wearing body padding and helmets, are due to be watching the beautiful game Scunthorpe-style this weekend. Computer expert Griff Wigley and Scott Neal, the city manager of Minnesota, are visiting the country as part of a project to help civic leaders in the UK set up their own weblogs – or blogs – which are like an internet diary. Although they are not setting up blogs for civic leaders in North Lincolnshire, the Government-funded project is being led by NorthLincsNet – an organisation set up to promote the region and help get it online

Local officials blogging for readers

Some elected and appointed officials around the metro area are using Web logs to keep their constituents in the loop on just about everything from redevelopment efforts in Rosemount to where the Eden Prairie city manager was going on a winter getaway.

Official tours U.K. to talk about blog

Eden Prairie City Manager Scott Neal apparently got a big promotion this week, though his bosses on the City Council might be surprised to hear about it.

Toast and post
Eden Prairie City Manager Scott Neal recently brought readers of his Web log up to date on preparations for his trip to England, where he is meeting with British officials interested in government Web logs

Local officials blogging for readers far and wide

Not long ago it might have been hard to find out what’s been ailing the Northfield police chief, or where the Eden Prairie city manager was going on a midwinter getaway, or the latest redevelopment efforts in Rosemount.

On Thursday afternoon, we met with ReadMyDay blogger Councillor Louise Alexander at Tower Hamlets.

See Scott’s post on the meeting.

On Thursday morning, Scott and I invaded and conquered Surrey and then met with ReadMyDay blogger Councillor Andrew Crisp and colleagues at Surrey County Council.

(See the high-res versions of these and other Thursday photos on page 4 of the UK trip photo album.)

More details to come on the meeting and the people in the above photo.

The Clarendon Hotel has wi-fi so we’re staying here another night, thankfully leaving our luggage behind today as we head out to meet with blogger Andrew Crisp and colleagues at Surrey County Council and blogger Louise Alexander at Tower Hamlets.

I just noticed that Hansard Society has posted an item about our ReadMyDay project titled: Blogging in Local Government – Civic Leadership Weblogs which includes this: “As part of the training package for this project the Hansard Society produced a short non-technical introduction to blogging, Blogging � the basics covered.”