I've said enough about this to bore most people to tears so don't want to subject you to much more. Only got involved in the first place cos I was fed up with several people complaining about Steve seered's negativity/lack of support for next years organisers and wanted to point out that having taken the time to read his site, I thought the majority of the points he is making sound sensible and unless there are factual errors in what he is saying, I support his general approach towards analytical questioning. Still haven't had any factual errors pointed out to me so I shall take it that there aren't any!

For what it's worth, looks to me like he would be a good person to have involved in the organisation of it and it's a shame that for whatever reason he hasn't been involved. I'd have thought steering group meetings would be the most useful place to have his questions discussed. (When I said 'the question' I didn't mean to imply there was only one, just that each question could be treated separately). That way he'd have an outlet for the energy he has put into researching the issues that concern him & others. Unless he is lying about it, he has made several ongoing attempts to get involved with said steering committee and he hasn't been allowed in. I'm prepared to keep an open mind about whether that is the whole story but nobody has picked it up as a 'factual error' so I'm more inclined to believe him than not.