Why should I care about politics? Video interviews from the Labour Party Conference

I was at the 2009 Labour Party Conference held last Saturday.

It was my first political party Conference/Ard Fheis/Meeting. I'd never have considered myself interested in politics but something Suzy said - along the lines of "if you're interested in things changing or improving, you're interested in politics" - struck a chord and so I took the Labour Press Office invitation to attend the event as a blogger and went along for a look, not knowing what, if anything, I could contribute.

I'll do a longer post on this soon - Simon McGarr's is well worth a read - but I wanted to upload the videos I have ready to show of interviews I was lucky enough to get.

How? I asked for them.
Why? Well, I just wanted to know two things - why I should be interested in politics and why should I be interested in the Labour Party.

I knew of course that they were simple leading questions, designed to help party members talk with passion about the Labour Party, but passion is important too.

Here's some of what people told me:

Eamon Gilmore, Labour Party leader



Pat Rabitte TD, Spokesperson for Justice (be warned, we were in a very noisy place)



Emmet Stagg TD tells me about his political career and why I should care about politics. He was a gentleman, we had a great chat.



Senator Ivana Bacik:



I'll be blogging more about this - I have more interviews to come - but I sit here now, looking at them again, impressed by the passion and the hunger for change with not just those I interviewed, but practically everyone I spoke to.

Huge thanks and props to Stephanie who was a brilliant camera person and partner in crime.