Leader Column

It was something usually experienced only by celebrities and those facing trial for heinous crimes. I was trying to walk along looking nonchalant, as if the photographers and cameramen in front of me, shooting away while walking backwards, didn't exist.

Behind me was a column of local Green Party activists. I was explaining to the person alongside about our long-running campaign to get Plot 6, alongside Temple Meads, to become home for Bristol's all-purpose transport hub. And it was she who had brought the cameras out - Caroline Lucas, our first Green MP and our first 'leader' (though given our suspicion of leadership, and seeing the way some recent Prime Ministers have chosen to exercise it, our Caroline is more constrained than most by the party constitution.)

Caroline was here in Bristol on Thursday, taking the scenic route from her Brighton consituency to the Greens' biannual conference at Cardiff by way of the north of England,, London, Devon, and Bristol - and concentrating, as you might expect, on places where the Greens look set to do well in the local elections.

For once, the media took interest in us. Both regional TV stations were there, with the BBC doing lengthy interviews for The Politics Show. Even the Post, not usually one to take an interest in Green Party events, sent a photographer (it's political editor was too busy writing yet another piece about stadia and superstores). So we got coverage on ITV news, Radio Bristol, Jack FM, and the Evening Post; with (I hope) more to come, from Venue (soon, I very much hope, to be reborn) and the Politics Show.

But the biggest impact of the day was certainly Caroline herself. The fluent way she handled questions and made all the key points, whether on national or local issues, (she did far better on those than I would have done!) left most of us in awe.