Travelled to Manchester yesterday – about 250 miles . Stayed over at Garden hotel then today travelled to Rochdale home of The Co-operative movement. I swear manchester changes every time I visit. Rochdale in comparison remains the same.  The conference was to promote  integrated services for young people. 

But  that the evaluation of services for a young person is impossible   in the short term of childhood – it's in the childs adulthood that you can see how well the social services has done.  Much of the well meaning  “evaluation” in public services (including the arts) is to satisfy the curiosity of the “service provider” rather than the “service user”.  This isn't in itself the problem.  Not being aware of it, is.

The venue is  straight out of Harry Potter. Finish at  4pm back home in London for eleven pm. I am really looking forward to going to Ireland to read at The Cork  Literature Festival on Sunday. Love Ireland!