Eric Joyce MP and the evening of his resignation

Last night I was one of the panel speakers at debate hosted by the UK National Defence Association, one of the other panelists was Eric Joyce MP. He was a little late for the start of the debate but, as he was traveling down from Scotland to be there, no one was too surprised.

While I didn't agree with all the points that he made during the debate, I found myself agreeing with a great deal more than I had expected. I kept thinking to myself that he was demonstrating a great deal of candor for someone in the government (PPS to Bob Ainsworth, Defence Secretary) and seemed willing to criticize the government at times. I put it down to him being an former soldier.

It wasn't until I was traveling home on the train that I checked the BBC News website on my phone (I'm a news junky) to discover that Eric had resigned from the government just minutes before arriving at the debate.

He clearly felt liberated.