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I arrived at CLG at about 9:10 having taken the wrong route from Euston. Jamie met me in reception and took me via the kitchen for a coffee into an introductory meeting where she 'downloaded' a lot of paper-based information and started to explain a glossary of terms. She did a pretty good job which was evident from the fact that at the team meeting in the afternoon I understood virtually every acronym and term used. Key among these are:

New burdens - the extra costs local authorities incur when asked to implement a new policy by national government. These are to be avoided at all costs(!) as there appears to be an agreement that national government will have to foot the bill if they are incurred.

PB = Participatory budgeting
Command Paper = a White Paper that hasn't gone through a consultative stage (Green Paper)
DA(PED) = a sub-committee of the cabinet (I think) that has certain delegated powers (eg for clear a White Paper for publication)

Certain terms are used which have very specific meanings eg 'submissions' and 'briefs' - I'm not totally sure of the difference yet! Perhaps Alex can help me out here.

There are also directional terms that I have picked up. 'Going up' seems to mean 'sent to the minister for approval'.

I spent most of the day reading and have loads of case studies etc to put here. However, this was not possible without an internet connection at my desk. This probably won't happen until next week. I found working without a connection really difficult. The good news is that my new Nokia N95 arrived at the office yesterday and I set it up last night as a modem for my Mac so I think I will have some connectivity today which will be brilliant.

This change of routine and the nature of the information I'm being bombarded with has totally screwed up my sleeping patterns. Definitely suffering from a bit of 'red eye' this morning!

Roll on Day 2! Hoping to be able to meet up with David Wilcox for lunch today.