Sunday, 14 September 2008

The Place To Be

Exciting things happen during Liberal Democrat conferences. Admittedly, they often happen far away from the conference itself. Who can forget the Lib Dem conference of 1992, admittedly rather overshadowed by "Black Wednesday".

Then there was the Lib Dem gathering in Blackpool that coincided with the bombing of Afghanistan. I was back in London before Sunday night that year.

Gordon Brown's troubles have diverted attention away from Nick Clegg's first conference as Lib Dem leader but, for now, we're staying in Bournemouth.

For those pining for leadership battles, there is of course the future of the Welsh Lib Dems to be decided.

For the Politics Show We lined up the telly dream team of the only declared candidate - Kirsty Williams - and a past Welsh Lib Dem leader, Lembit Opik.

Both agreed, only for Kirsty to claim that she had a diary clash with a fringe event. A quick check discovered that the fringe event didn't start until an hour after the Politics Show.

Perhaps her withdrawal had something to do with this description of internal party tensions.

Luckily, the outgoing leader, Mike German, has agreed to step in - despite the fact he's appearing at the same fringe Kirsty cited as a diary clash.

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