Liberal Democrats Glasgow Conference

As this year’s LibDem autumn conference was held unusually later this year — to make way for the Scottish referendum — and the SOAS university term has already started, I was only able to spend the first three days up in Glasgow, which confirmed my impression from last year of being a really lovely and friendly city. There seemed to be fewer conference reps present this time, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm, much to the frustration of journalists keen to do the whole thing down. There were some excellent debates, for example on overcoming poverty worldwide, as well as a raft of set-piece speeches by government Ministers. I spoke in the debate on the sensitive subject of tackling child abuse, a bit emotionally perhaps, but I was grateful for the huge sense of support in the hall. As always the fringe offered the best parts of conference and I deliberately went to a few that were outside my usual policy comfort zone, learning a lot from the session on the proposed Nature and Well-being Act, in particular. Of course, next May’s election was at the back of Conference-goers’ minds, but although everyone expects it to be quite difficult the party is nonetheless braced to bring in the best results possible.