Conference differences

I like Simon Hughes. I voted for him when he stood for leadership of the Liberal Democrats and as usual he gave a great speech at the conference. He welcomed two political editors from national newspapers and told them how you can tell the difference between the three main conferences. The Labour conference has delegates with lots of votes, The Tory conference has delegates with no votes, and the Liberal Democrats have lots of representatives with one vote each.

If you have been following the conference you will have heard dissenting voices. You would have heard debate. Some see this as a form of weakness. How can you lead when there is division? To me this is a form of strength. For me there should be more debate. However the other feature of a Liberal Democrat conference is the thought that the representatives put in to their speeches and their reasoned argument. The reason for this is that there is no string-pulling. Big business does not have to be supported and neither do the unions, but each may have valid points to make which may be seen through reasoned argument.

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