Sunday at conference

A busy day at conference.

First up, Nick and his wife Miriam went for a walk on the beach. Thanks to Jayne Martin-Kaye for the pic.

In the afternoon, he had a question and answer session with Steve Richards of the Independent.

Perhaps more interesting was a fringe meeting held jointly by Centre Forum and the Fabian Society. As well as Lib Dem favourite Vince Cable and Bristol West MP Stephen Williams, we heard from former Home Secretary and Gordon Brown favourite Charles Clarke alongside Labour Minister David Lammy. The room was packed well before the meeting started and it all started off in a consensual manner. Williams and Lammy proclaimed the shared philosophy of the two parties on many issues before stressing where the many differences lay. Vince Cable, himself a former Labour member, said that his personal political heroes were Tony Crosland and John Smith and went on to say that he thought there was still a lot of work that could be done between Labour and the Lib Dems.

But Charles Clarke broke the mood by trying to hammer what he called the inadequacies of the Lib Dems on issues of policy, philosophy and personality. He claimed that Labour had been a great success in Government and that the Lib Dems would just wreck it. Perhaps that is just his job?