Mark Valladares

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.comA night at the AGMIn truth, I haven’t really engaged with my current Local Party - Ipswich - as much as I perhaps have done in the past. I’ve attended the odd...

It’s AGM season in the Liberal Democrats, and Ipswich is no exception… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/10/a-ni...

ridebat.comBrockton – BAT

I’ve found a bus service for @rigg.lgbt… ridebat.com/brockton/

27 Aug

And, unlike our Conservative and Labour opposite numbers, we do it all unpaid…

libdemvoice.org@libdemvoice.org

20 years ago today, a bunch of @libdems.org.uk activists started a blog. And we are still here! Happy Birthday to us and thanks to everyone who has made the site what it is for two decades! Here’s to the next two!

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.comA day out at the football…Living in Suffolk, there is only one serious football team locally, the Tractor Boys of Ipswich Town, newly promoted to the Premier League a...

27 Aug

I’ve had a night out at the local Theatre of Dreams… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/08/a-da...

25 Aug

Greetings from Portman Road, home of the Tractor Boys, for Ipswich Town vs Leicester City in the second round of the Carabao Cup…

21 Aug

I am, slightly unexpectedly, in a mildly damp forest, watching the @redrosechain.bsky.social production of “Twelfth Night”…

4 Aug

I’m at Portman Road for Ipswich Town vs Le Havre - a preseason friendly…

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.comRural Communities working group - so, let the fun begin…It would be fair to say that even my best friends wouldn’t describe me as a policy wonk. Yes, I’ve been known to come up with a compromise o...

31 July

And so, I have something new to do as a member of the @libdems.org.uk Rural Communities policy working group. Here’s how it happened… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/07/rura...

28 July

It’s been a long time since I last worked alongside @aaemmerson.bsky.social and it’s probably fair to say that it’s a long way from Liberal Youth to a policy working group on Rural Communities, but there you go…

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.comA transition plan emerges…I am in the midst of what I self-mockingly describe as a Frank Sinatra-esque farewell tour from the Town and Parish Council sector. What wit...

27 July

Farewell, Parish Council sector, hello… what, exactly?… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/07/a-tr...

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.comLong, long ago on a Policy Working Group far, far away…I am reminded this week of one of the more quirky items on my political CV, something I did at a time when I was rather (incorrectly) more c...

23 July

Just to prove that I, and my blog, are still alive, I thought that I’d take a look back to 1989. It’s relevant, honest… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/07/long...

southsuffolklibdems.org.ukOur Petition - Babergh Liberal Democrats

14 June

Reform UK want to waste your Council Tax money to delay the new Unitaries, sign up here to tell them no… www.southsuffolklibdems.org.uk/stopreformuk...

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com#interrail2026: day 3 - I'm sure that Denmark's lovely, but...Flensburg lies at the head of an long inlet of the Baltic Sea, just south of the Danish border with Germany, and is probably most famous for...

24 May

Back to my travels, as I relate a journey across Denmark… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/05/inte...

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.comCreeting St Peter: putting the administrative stuff to rights, one task at a time...In my eight years as Chair of the Parish Council, I've held a number of roles. At one point, I was Chair, Acting Clerk and Responsible Finan...

22 May

So, I’m no longer the Chair of Creeting St Peter Parish Council. That’s not to say that I’m not still busy… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/05/cree...

21 May

So, trans people are going to be punished for what they are rather than what any individual does. It’s a reminder to the rest of us minorities that our rights aren’t necessarily secure and, that if we don’t conform, they could be taken away. Canary in the coal mine, anyone? 🏳️‍⚧️

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com#interrail2026 - day 2: across the Low Countries to Schleswig HolsteinIt's time to catch up with the trip now that I'm back, so le t's do just that... Early morning, Antwerp, and my first intention was to de...

21 May

I’ve rather failed to report back on my trip across Europe, and so it’s time to catch up with Antwerp to Flensburg, in which I reminisce about my youth, miss connections and walk… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/05/inte...

20 May

It’s apparently World Bee Day today, so here’s a photograph of a bee from my archive….

liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.comCreeting St Peter: like Frank Sinatra, I’m doing it my way…As I noted a few months ago, 2026 is a bit of a transitional year for this bureaucrat. I’m gently stepping back from the world of Parish Cou...

20 May

Creeting St Peter Parish Council meets, no injuries reported… liberalbureaucracy.blogspot.com/2026/05/cree...

18 May

After eight years, I am no longer the Chair of Creeting St Peter Parish Council. I am, in parts, sad, relieved and proud. It has been one of the greatest honours of my life to hold the position but, whilst it might seem irrelevant to some, I’ve made a difference, and not everyone can say that.

10 May

And…

10 May

And to celebrate my final stop on this possibly crazy journey… I am, I think, worth it… #interrail2026

10 May

Und so… welcome to German-speaking Belgium, where I have stopped on my way from Eindhoven to Brussels. I’m in Eupen, the “capital” of the German Community in Belgium, which has its own rather tasteful looking Parliament. #interrail2026

Well, this is amusing. My ICE train from Frankfurt to S’Hertogenbosch was due to stop at Moenchengladbach about 35 minutes ago, where it would then reverse before continuing its journey towards Amsterdam. However, we’re so late that we’ve stopped at Viersen, about four miles away,

dropped off the Moenchengladbach passengers and are (hopefully) heading towards the Netherlands. Only @deutschebahn.com could do this with such an unGermanic sense of confusion… So much for German efficiency… #interrail2026

A slight detour to reminisce… #interrail2026

Good morning, everyone, and greetings from Strasbourg! #interrail2026

8 May

And so, I’m on another train, leaving Linz for München. This is my seat for the next three hours or so… #interrail2026

8 May

So, I was supposed to be on a train to Feldkirch this morning, and yet, here I am, still in Linz, on a bridge over the Danube instead. #interrail2026

8 May

This is the advantage of having the flexibility to change my mind. So, instead of the 8.45 to Feldkirch, I’m on the 13.45 to München. Not my final destination for the day but…

So, I’ve done the tour of the Budvar brewery here in České Budějovice, drunk the unfiltered, unpasteurised beer, seen the factory and even its little shunting locomotive.

So, what am I touring, and why was it worth a four hour, fifteen minute journey by train, rail replacement bus and another train?

And so, having left my luggage at the station, the true purpose of my visit to České Budějovice can be told. This train is taking me one stop, to České Budějovice severní zastávka for, hopefully, a tour.

The train to České Budějovice is described on the Interrail planning app as “Fast Train”. This is not strictly accurate, in that we switched to a rail replacement bus at Třebíč and reached Horní Cerekev before the train was scheduled to arrive there. #interrail2026

And so, another day begins, this time in **** (as @helenbelcherobe.bsky.social noted last year, we don’t talk about it), and here I am, after a leisurely breakfast, on the 9.44 České dráhy service to České Buděnovice. #interrail2026

Next to it is an InterPanter, which looks sharp enough.

Train beer! #interrail2026

Hmmm… we’ve crossed the border into the Czech Republic but our train has turned west towards Ostrava after Chalupki, instead of east towards Bohumin, as it is supposed to. I wonder what happens now? #interrail2026

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I fear that my 16.24 connection to Brno may have gone south… literallly… indeed, I think that I just saw it pass us heading in the opposite direction… #interrail2026

And now I know why, we’ve reversed onto the extra carriages attached to the train at Bohumin, which means that I’ve missed my connection but instead have a first class compartment to myself from here to Breclav, and a restaurant car to explore.

So, we’re stationery, somewhere near Vrbice, and a man in an orange boiler suit with a screwdriver just walked past.

And now we’re moving again… backwards… will the drama never end? #interrail2026

I did wonder why a EuroCity train didn’t have first class, and now I know… EC307 from Wroclaw Glówny to Graz Hbf has just two aged carriages… #interrail2026

Well, here’s a first, as I leave Częstochowa Stradom - my train is early as it arrives here. Now, as PKP have a 0% success rate so far with all three trains late, will we make it to Opole Glówny in time for my connection to Bohumin? It’s a scheduled eighteen minute connection so… #interrail2026

Well, I’ve reached my next stop… #interrail2026

You might find this hard to believe, but I’m on another train - a rather fancier one this time, from Gdańsk Glówny to Zawiercie… #interrail2026

I am reminded that @baronessros.bsky.social marked twenty-six years as a member of the House of Lords yesterday. And whilst I am hugely proud of her anyway, her journey from a small town in mid-Suffolk to where she is now has been a remarkable one.