Wilton Park
I knew I was onto a winner when I mentioned the words ‘Wilton’ and ‘Park’ to Catherine Fieschi and she nearly exploded in enthusiasm over “cakes!” and “afternoon tea!” and “beautiful surroundings!”
The raving was not unwarranted. Yannick (Yann) and I spent the last working week at the Wilton Park ‘Atlantic Youth Forum’ gorging ourselves mainly on the abundant supply of intellectual stimuli, and only partly on the fountains of warm homemade cookies, deliciously light scones and the most exotic cold salad selection I have ever encountered. If you didn’t know it before, take heed now when I say; knowing Rachel Briggs can pay rich dividends.
Well Yannand I did try to give something back to Wilton Park for this generous display, and we were what may be referred to as ‘gobby’ but what I like to think of as vibrant contributors towards discussion. We aimed to make verbal interventions in every single session, and I think we actually managed. It is telling, either about us or about the rest of the participants depending on your outlook, that in the (democratic) elections for Chair of the final session Yann and I came second and first. Demos has clearly taught us how to make democracy work, for our benefit at least!
My highlight was the trip to London on Wednesday (can’t be away from the city for too long) when we visited the Houses of Parliament, Westminster House, the American Embassy and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I felt in the presence of power. I enjoy that. After some extensive security screening processes the American Embassy offered us a prestigious speaker who had been an ambassador in Iraq. We gathered in a large and eerie lecture theatre with a stage boasting a large and ominous American flag. I asked a question about whether, as a guy who had worked for humanitarian organisations before, he felt he ever had to compromise his principles in defending the actions of the American government, according to Yann the question brought a tear to his eye.
I should probably stop now, for fear of breaking the Chatham house rules...but one last hint: If Yann tries to tell you about how a cat tried to seduce him, just don't believe it.
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The geographic isolation of Wiston House (the 16th manor that houses the conference, about 7mi away from human activity - it won't even appear on Google Maps), the quality of the house staff, the choice of participants and speakers ... EVERYTHING just makes it so easy to engage your colleagues in conversations ranging from "Who Are the Superpowers?" to "Why is it so hard for guys to talk to girls?"
Let's not kid ourselves here, a lot of the 18-24 yo present will get positions of influence in the corridors of power within the next 10 years. So Wilton Park is obviously a lot about networking (personally, the business cards were flying).
In any case, Wilton is a wonderful experience. Some encounters made there will last a long time, discovering other aspects of people I knew was terrific, and more generally, speaking to a diverse group of people on subjects of common interest was just wild and exciting. Sort of a residential Demos Internship Programme with lots of cash!
Hats off to Julia Purcell (Conference Director and Organizer), Alison Jones (Conference Administrator extraordinaire), and everybody, staff and participants, who made those 4 days a great moment in our lives.
Person who impressed me the most: Jamie Shea. He was spokesperson for NATO during the War in Kosovo, and I have to admit (and told him as much) that I despised him at the time for his brazen lying to the public. Now, in his capacity as Director of Policy Planning for the Secretary General, I must say I was absolutely awestruck by the ease with which he spoke of global issues, the honesty of his analysis, and the depth of his knowledge. I guess that such conferences do help to convert the unconvinced ...
PS: while I know of many sheep (both literally and figuratively) at Wilton Park, I must admit I know of no seductive cat besides Xenon - my own, back in Belgium.