Follow all the action, debates and issues on the first day of this year's Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham
That's it from me for the night. Check back at guardian.co.uk/politics tomorrow morning, when Andrew Sparrow will pick up the baton again. Thanks for all your comments.
His speech ends with rousing music and a standing ovation from the delegates.
He lists some more Lib Dem achievements:
Cutting taxes, not for the rich but for millions of people on low and middle incomes. Helping pensioners by restoring the earnings link. Creating a quarter of a million new apprenticeships.
He sums up with a rousing paragraph about being "on your side":
In difficult times you need to know two things about your government: that it has the strength to take the decisions needed to fix the big problems; and that there are people in that government who are looking out for you. Those people are there. They're in government and on your side. They're called Liberal Democrats.
But he says he can't broadcast every disagreement he has with the Tories because "while times are hard, while people are struggling, the last thing people want is to see the nation's leaders squabbling and point scoring".
He says the Lib Dems have proved coalition works, but emphasises again that he and the Tories don't agree on everything. "We have not become the same and never will." But they are putting their differences aside and putting country first.
He tells the now-familiar story of why the Lib Dems decided to join the Tories in coalition rather than stand "on the sidelines and watched a government that couldn't even command a majority in the House of Commons try to tackle an economy teetering on the edge of a cliff".
And he calls the Tories his "enemies":
We did it [went into coalition] knowing it meant working with our political enemies and almost certain short-term unpopularity.
He says the Lib Dem rank and file have told him he is not getting across what they achieved in government. The list is quite vague: "Fair taxes, a fair start for children, building a new green economy and fixing our broken politics." He adds more achievements, the only concrete one being "ending child detention".
Clegg says in government the Lib Dems are "punching above our weight". They only have five cabinet ministers - "six if you include Ken Clarke". He gets a big clap for saying the Daily Mail called him the most dangerous politician in Britain.
He credits the Lib Dem spring conference for changing the government's proposals on NHS reform. "Your vote at spring conference in Sheffield [was] carried into the corridors of Whitehall, resulting in real change."
He says that "on Rupert Murdoch", the Lib Dems "have been in the lead, taking on the vested interests in the media".
Clegg says there are "vested interests" in politics and the media "who want to put us back in our place".
He predicts rows among Lib Dems this week over NHS reform, tax, and the environment. He says he used to support the mansion tax but has since been "mulling it over in the drawing room in Chevening", the country house which he shares the use of with the foreign secretary. That gets a big laugh.
In a typical Clegg touch, he raises something supposedly negative about the party that in reality he is presenting as a positive, that the Lib Dems are a bit "awkward".
In the same vein: "As our coalition partners are finding out on a daily basis, we are not here to make things easy. We're here to put things right."
He says he wants to put right the fact that the Lib Dems are "too male and too pale".
Clegg starts by paying tribute to the family of the four miners who died in Wales, before beginning his speech proper. He starts with some good jokes. David Cameron chose his football team for the same reason as everyone else: his uncle was the chairman. And he imagines a Daily Mail headline about him taking his sons to a match: "Deputy prime minister takes kids to football while Spanish wife does as she pleases," or maybe: "Half-Dutch, half-Russian Nick Clegg watches football: but who does he REALLY support?" Quite convincing.
He says he has been "criss-crossing the country" speaking to as many Lib Dems as possible.
Clegg pays tribute to prominent Lib Dem activist Andrew Reeves, who died recently.
Clegg gets a standing ovation as he arrives on stage.
Introducing Nick Clegg, Carmichael says he "absorbs the sort of abuse from the press that would crush a lesser man".
Carmichael gets a big round of applause for saying business secretary Vince Cable has stopped American executions taking place using British drugs.
Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dem chief whip and deputy government chief whip, appears next. "I see that having you all vetted by the West Midlands police didn't quite work out," he tells the crowd. They love that.
Be in no doubt, he says, the Tories are "different from us".
Next up is Chris Lucas, a prospective MP who is black - the Lib Dems have no non-white MPs out of a total of 57. They only have seven female MPs. "When it comes to diversity we must hang our heads in shame," Lucas says.
Teather attacks Labour over its record on social mobility and says if they consider themselves the party of the poor, "sometimes that just gives them the excuse to keep them that way".
Teather says she has had "crises of confidence" over being in government with the Tories and has faced the toughest battles of her career since becoming a minister. "But is it worth it? Yes." Because of the pupil premium, "every child on free school meals now gets extra money for extra support ? This extra support will turn around lives." She gets applause for this, and drops the jokes to talk passionately about what she feels she has achieved as a minister.
Sarah Teather, the MP for Brent Central in London and junior education minister, speaks next. She makes a couple of risque jokes about George Osborne and complains that the audience are too slow to get them. "Too busy leafletting..." Rupert Murdoch is going to appear on Strictly Come Dancing, she says - Andy Coulson has bought him "a pair of tap shoes". Back to Osborne again; he'll appear "doing a line dance".
Those who like being in perpetual opposition are welcome to it, Heath says. "I prefer actually changing things for the better." He lists the Lib Dem manifesto commitments that the party has kept in government.
David Heath, the MP for Somerton and Frome, is up next. The Guardian says Nick Clegg has gone rightwing, while the Daily Mail says the Lib Dems are pulling the coalition to the left, he says. He reads out a few complaining letters he has received, including: "'My voices tell me you are blackmailing the prime minister and taking over the government.' That was from Mrs Dorries." He also throws in a dig at Evan Harris, who, he says, takes no time at all to pop up in the media after a great Lib Dem victory calling it a great Lib Dem disaster.
More jokes from Foster, this time at the expense of Chris Huhne, the environment secretary who is being investigated over claims he put pressure on his estranged wife to take his driving penalty points. He's moved quickly, and shown a lot of drive. He certainly gets his points across, he says.
His next target is George Osborne, the chancellor. Foster says he considered asking Osborne for jokes, as he knows a lot about gags, but he didn't want to get up his nose about it. He certainly sticks to his lines, Foster says. Those were all references to these claims.
Bath MP Don Foster takes the stage. He talks about being made a privy counsellor. The ceremony involves kissing the Queen. He claims Eric Pickles, the Tory communities secretary, grabbed him in a bear hug beforehand and told him: "When it comes to the kissing part: no tongues." The delegates groan, seeming to find this a bit tasteless.
Foster makes a joke about limiting the number of committees influential former MP Evan Harris sits on, getting affectionate (I think) applause. He says Harris has even persuaded Hugh Grant to attend a fringe on phone hacking (it's tomorrow) - "at least that's what Hugh Grant said on his voicemail".
A video shows key Lib Dems such as Nick Clegg, Sarah Teather and Brian Paddick going about their work looking purposeful. Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Lib Dems, and Tessa Munt, Lib Dem MP for Wells, take to the stage.
In a scheduling change Munt is standing in for the leader of the Welsh Lib Dems. She jokes that she is the leader of the Lib Dems in Wells. People often ask her: "You're the MP for the whole of Wales?" Maybe after a few more boundary changes, she jokes.
Hi, Paul Owen here taking over from Andrew Sparrow for the evening. I'm in the main hall, which is the busiest I've seen it today: the whole of the floor seating has filled up, although the higher levels are fenced off. For many delegates who cannot take time off work for the leader's speech on Wednesday, this will be their best chance to see Nick Clegg up close.
The formal conference proceedings are over now. My colleague Paul Owen will be carrying on for a while and he'll be covering the rally where Nick Clegg will be speaking. It starts at 6.30pm. In the meantime, here's an afternoon summary.
? Delegates have voted for a motion ordering Lib Dem ministers to oppose government plans to impose a limit on the amount of time people can receive contributory employment and support allowance, a disability benefit. In the debate Tom Wood, of Liberal Youth, told the conference: "When launching the Welfare Reform Bill, David Cameron said 'those who can [work] should, but of course those who can't, we always help'. What a pity that by always he meant a pathetic 12 months." After the vote Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "Today Liberal Democrat members stood up for thousands of cancer patients who are fearful of losing vital financial support. The Government must now make changes to the Welfare Reform Bill to ensure cancer patients are not penalised simply because they do not recovery quickly enough." (See 5.18pm.)
? Nick Clegg has minimised the chances of a row about the health bill dominating the conference by thwarting an attempt to hold an emergency vote on the subject. Evan Harris, the former MP, and other delegates wanted to use a vote later in the week to demand further changes to the legislation. But they narrowly failed to get the two-thirds majority necessary for a change to the conference standing orders when the matter was put to vote. Representing the leadership, Simon Hughes, the party's deputy leader, urged delegates to reject the rebel proposal. "Don't score an own goal by unstitching a balanced conference," he said. He said the conference committee did not want to "micro-manage government policy" by allowing party members to issue a new "shopping list" of demands. (See 3.06pm.)
? Delegates have said that Clegg should choose women rather than men if he has to appoint more peers to the Lords. The motion they passed on Lords reform also criticised government plans to allow 20% of peers to be appointed and said that the bishops should lose their seats in the Lords. (See 4.00pm.)
That's it from me, Andrew Sparrow. Paul Owen will be blogging for the rest of the day.
My colleague Paul Owen has just been to a Q&A on business and banks with Vince Cable. Key Lib Dem ministers are taking part in these sessions throughout conference week to allow grassroots Lib Dems to quiz them on government policy and life inside the coalition.
The government should have rebranded its increase in tuition fees as a graduate tax, the business secretary said. "I think it would have been better for everyone if we'd called it a graduate tax," Cable said, "but you can't control the language of public debate."
Referring to the Vickers recommendations on separating banks' investment and high street arms, he said this would happen quicker than thought: "2019 is a backstop. We're going to legislate this parliament. The banks will know this is happening ... Their culture will change and it will change quickly." He said he wanted to synchronise certain elements such as "the accumulation of capital" with international practice, but "the key element, ringfencing, will go ahead much earlier than that". The ringfencing would not be "Chinese walls", as one Lib Dem delegate put it, but would be "policed by law".
Asked about his comments in today's Guardian calling for another round of quantitative easing, Cable defended his right to comment on monetary policy - more properly the remit of the Bank of England. "When you're dealing with monetary policy in the aftermath of this massive economic crisis there is an overlap between the role of the
central bank [Bank of England] and government."
On the debate between Tories and Lib Dems in the government over whether to retain the 50p top rate of tax, the business secretary said: "I don't buy this argument that this deters entrepreneurs. We've actually produced quite an attractive tax regime for genuine entrepreneurs." He said they were more concerned about capital gains tax and "there is now quite a generous entrepreneurs' relief under CGT." He added that: "We're in abnormal conditions. We're in a society where a lot of people are getting hurt, there's a lot of austerity and it's absolutely right in principle that better-off people should pay more."But he was willing to swap it for a mansion tax.
Cable also had some interesting things to say on the eurozone debt crisis. "I think it's quite clear what has to happen; whether there's the political will to make it happen is down to [German] chancellor [Angela] Merkel in particular." He said it was generally accepted that Greek debt had to be written down and there had to be "a proper flow of liquidity". But "more controversial and not yet accepted is that the sovereign debt of European countries will have to be Europeanised. There is much less agreement on that. That combination of things would get the eurozone out of trouble. Whether they can do it or not we don't know."
He also joked that he was "minister for space, time and the weather", referring to his responsibilities for the UK space industry, atomic clocks and the Met Office. "These are not things I can do much about."
Delegates have passed a motion criticising the government over disability benefits. It relates to employment and support allowance, the new benefit being brought in to replace incapacity benefit, and the work capability assessements carried out by the private healthcare firm Atos which are used to decide whether claimants qualify. Here are the key points from the motion and the amendement (that was carried).
? Lib Dems voted for an amended motion saying that Lib Dems in government should "oppose an arbitrary time limit on how long claimants can claim contributory ESA". The government wants people to only be allowed to claim contributory ESA for a year, which became the subject of a row at PMQs earlier this year when Ed Miliband pointed out that cancer patients could lose out.
? They voted for people appealling against work capability assessments to be eligible for legal aid. (The government is excluding welfare benefits casework from legal aid.)
? They voted for the work capability assessments to be made "less stressful".
? They voted for a review of Atos's performance in carrying out medical assessments.
Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, used her speech to confirm the announcement trailed in the papers today about the government's plans to allow gays and lesbians to get married. But there were also a couple of other lines worth noting.
? Featherstone took a veiled swipe at Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, for not taking rape seriously. She was clearly referring to the Clarke "rape row" when she said this:
It is simply not acceptable that in a modern democracy like ours, an average of two women a week are murdered by their partners or ex-partners.
But neither is it acceptable for our law-makers, no matter how-well intentioned, to talk about rape in a way that seems both casual and callous.
As a nation, and as a government, we must be clear that we understand that rape and sexual violence is about power, not about sex.
? She said she hoped the Arab spring would lead to more gender equality in the Middle East.
The Arab Spring has been a great political revolution ? a fight for equality.
Equal rights to vote, equal access to the labour market, equal share in the future of your country ? for all classes and races and religions.
But this must apply to women too.
Because while half their populations are isolated and marginalised, these new societies can never reach their full potential ? economically, socially, or morally.
So I urge these new nations to ensure that this isn't only a political revolution, but a social revolution as well.
That this Arab Spring is followed by a Feminist Summer, where women can vote, work, speak their minds and live free from violence.
The full text of Featherstone's speech is on the Lib Dem website.
Evan Harris has been commenting on BBC News on his failure to secure a proper debate on the health bill. He said that even though delegates won't have the chance to vote on a motion criticising the bill as it now stands, the views of delegates will still be heard.
The bill isn't acceptable as it stand to many Liberal Democrats and that's why there's a majority here wanting to make alterations to this bill.
Harris said that if delegates expressed their views, they would influence Lib Dem peers who will have the chance to change the bill as it goes through the Lords
The Press Association is saying that three people have been charged with causing a danger to road users after a protest near the venue hosting the Liberal Democrats' autumn conference. Here's an extract from the story.
The men - a 19-year-old from Leeds, a 21-year-old from Doncaster and a 22-year-old from Fleet in Hampshire - were arrested last night after an incident near Birmingham's International Convention Centre (ICC).
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said the men had been charged this afternoon after they allegedly scaled a bridge which connects the Hyatt Hotel to the ICC last night to unfurl a banner.
The spokeswoman said: "As a result of these actions debris fell into Broad Street, creating a hazard to pedestrians and motorists.
"West Midlands Police continues to monitor a small peaceful protest near to the ICC. Whilst we recognise and support the democratic right for people to peacefully protest, we continue to balance this with ensuring the safety and security of all those attending these events, as well as the wider Birmingham community."
Those charged will appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on Monday.
The motion on the House of Lords has been passed. More interestingly, three relatively spiky amendments have been added. Here they are:
? Delegates have criticised Nick Clegg's plans to allow up to 20% of peers to remain appointed. Clegg included the 20% figure in his draft bill because he thought this would increase the chances of the legislation getting through parliament. (He has always said that he would prefer the Lords to be 100% elected.) The amended motion says conference "expresses its disappointment at the government's proposals to include the possibility of up to 20% of members being appointed".
? The Lib Dems have voted against bishops being allowed to remain in the Lords. The amended motion says there should not be any seats reserved in the Lords for any religious groups.
? The Lib Dems want the reformed Lords to have an "in-built gender balance". The amended motion also says that any further interim appointments to the Lords should "mitigate, rather than perpetuate, the current gender imbalance". That means Clegg should choose women, not men, when he has the chance to appoint more peers.
Mark Pack is summing up in the Lords debate. He says delegates should lobby those peers who are opposed to an elected Lords. The clue is in the name, he says.
We are not the Liberal peers. We are not the Liberal appointees for life. We are the Liberal Democrats.
Lord Tyler, the former MP, opened the debate on the House of Lords. He backed the government's proposals on Lords reform, called for the first elections to the Lords to be held in 2015 and said that anyone who became a peer after 1997, when Labour was elected promising an elected Lords, should accept that they had no right to expect to remain in the Lords for life. Here's an extract from his speech.
It is to the eternal credit of this government ? our government ? that more progress was made on Lords reform in their first 13 months than happened in 13 years under Labour.But now there are firm proposals from the Coalition to lift our Parliament finally into the 21st century, the cynics and the diehards are preparing once again to block any change at all.
They hope that simply by grumbling, by naysaying, by cavilling about the detail, and by prophesising failure, that they will achieve failure. For that is what they want.
Nowhere is this tendency more prevalent than on the Labour benches in the Lords.
One time bastions of socialism now not just pillars, but supporting walls in the House of the Establishment.
Most of them ex-MPs like John Hutton, John Reid, John McFall, and John Prescott?
?I call them the Jurassic Johns.
?who stood in election after election promising reform.But with the ermine on their shoulders they are infected by a toxic, self-regarding complacency.
You can tell the Lib Dems are getting important - they've had to ban someone from their conference. Andrew Wiseman told the conference that someone had been excluded on police advice. He did not provide any details, other than saying that the individual concerned had only joined the party recently. He assured delegates that the decision was taken by the party, and not be the police. The Lib Dems are strong on freedom, and some delegates seemed to feel uneasy about the news, but Wiseman has something to say to cheer them up. The police had also suggested that another person should be excluded, he said. But the party decided to ignore police advice and let them in.
Wiseman is chair of the federal conference committee (the FCC). That's not to be confused with FPC (the federal policy committee) or the FE (federal executive). Lib Dem-speak can get confusing.
Nick Clegg has won his first victory. The "rebels" - ie, Evan Harris and delegates who wanted a full debate on the health bill so that the Lib Dem conference could vote demanding further changes to the legislation - lost the vote on whether or not that debate should go ahead. Rather, they won the vote - by 235 votes to 183 votes - but they did not get the two thirds majority necessary under the party's rules for change to the conference standing orders of this kind. This will be a relief to Clegg. He negotiated significant changes to the bill after the Lib Dems voted against the original plans at their spring conference and he recently said that the compromise package could not be re-opened. Now, instead of having a debate and a vote on a motion relating to the health bill, there will just be a Q&A session about it on Tuesday.
Harris has already suggested that closing down a debate of this kind is evidence of the "Toryisation" of the Lib Dem conference.
While we wait for the results of that vote, here's a round-up of the key Lib Dem stories from today's papers.
? Nick Clegg tells the Independent in an interview that the Lib Dems will only agree to drop the 50p top rate of tax if there is "significant progress" on tax cuts for the poor.
"It is not going to happen ? certainly not until there is significant progress on giving tax breaks to those on lower and middle incomes." Mr Clegg made clear that the Liberal Democrats would back abolition of the 50p rate in the long run only if it is not raising much revenue and if it is replaced by new taxes on "unearned income". These could include a 1 per cent annual "mansion tax" on homes worth more than �2m, a land tax, and restricting tax relief on pensions to the basic 20p rate.
? The Daily Mail claims that Clegg has told his wife that he will only serve one term as deputy prime minister.
Recently, at a private party, Miriam Clegg was asked how she'd feel about her husband serving a second term in office. Her reply was startling. There would be no second term, she said ? 'That was the deal.'
Those who know Clegg's fiery Spanish wife, who insists on his doing his share of the school runs, are likely to find the idea of such a deal perfectly plausible.
This comes from a biography of Clegg by the journalist Jasper Gerard being published next month. A Lib Dem aide touring the press room at the conference in Birmingham has just told me that the idea that Clegg has a deal of this kind with his wife is wrong. "It's just not true, he says.
Gerard also floats that idea that the Lib Dems will have a secret pact with the Conservatives at the next election not to fight each other too hard in key seats. That is also being dismissed as "utter nonsense" by Lib Dem officials in Birmingham.
In his interview in the Independent, Clegg says he will not stand down before the next election.
I am leader of the Lib Dems and Deputy Prime Minister. I love what I am doing. It is a huge privilege." So will he definitely be leader at the next election? "You bet," he replies instantly.
? Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, tells the Financial Times (subscription) that he would like the next Lib Dem manifesto to promise raising the threshold at which people start paying income tax to �12,500. This would take everyone on the minimum wage out of income tax. The coalition is committed to lifting the threshold to �10,000 by 2015.
? Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, suggests in an interview in the Times (paywall) that consumers are too lazy to shop around for the best energy deals.
They do not bother," he said. "They frankly spend less time shopping around for a bill that's on average more than �1,000 a year than they would shop around for a �25 toaster.
"If they got that in perspective and said, 'OK, we are going to spend a little bit of time shopping around' [they] could save very substantial amounts of money.
He also says that he's in favour of people making "lots of money".
I'm absolutely in favour of people making lots of money in a fair and competitive market," he said. "I'm absolutely against people making money by abusing a dominant position."
? Vince Cable, the business secretary, tells the Guardian that the government should boost the economy with a stimulus packaging involving investment in capital projects. This could involve building new toll roads, he said.
? Steve Webb, the pensions minister, tells the Daily Telegraph in an interview that criticism of the government's welfare policies by some Liberal Democrats has been unfair.
Stripping out inflation, the Government spent �12.28_billion on disability living allowance in 2010-11. In 2015-16, real-terms spending will be �12.29_ billion ? "in other words exactly the same amount". The same is true for housing benefit. "The cash spend ? not the real spend, the cash spend ? on housing benefit will be the same in five years' time as it is now."
Lib Dem critics, he suggests, have been taken by hyperbole about welfare cuts ? "it's not burning babies at dawn ? we've got to get away from some of the hysteria and get the facts across much better."
He also says the Lib Dems would be foolish to rule out another coalition with the Conservatives after the next election.
"I can't conceive we would go into an election ruling out working with anybody," he says. If the Lib Dems ruled out a second deal with the Conservatives "we might as well become a wholly-owned subsidiary" of the Labour Party.
In his Times interview, Huhne floated the possibility of the Lib Dems doing a deal with Labour.
[Huhne] made clear that he would keep lines of communication open with the Labour Party, and said that the "time may come" for the Lib Dems to work with Labour.
They are voting now. Those who want a full debate on the health bill - "the rebels", in media parlance - need a two-thirds majority.
Alan Sherwell, who is chairing the session, says he thinks they don't have a two-thirds majority, but he asks the stewards to carry out a proper count because the issue is so important.
They are now counting the votes.
The Lib Dems did vote to have the debate on whether to have a proper vote on the health bill. That debate going on now.
Simon Hughes is speaking. He is arguing against those delegates who want a debate on the health bill (and whether or not the Lib Dems should continue to oppose it). In technical terms, he is arguing against a suspension of standing orders.
The conference has just started. The hall is fairly empty - only around a quarter of the seats are full - and Andrew Wiseman, the chair of the federal conference committee, is talking about conference arrangements.
We definitely are getting a mini debate about whether or not to have a proper vote on the health bill. In fact, there will be a vote on whether to have a debate on whether or not to have a proper vote (if that's clear). It's all very Lib Dem ...
Where are the Lib Dems heading? This time last year Lib Dem relations with the Conservatives seemed to be getting warmer and warmer. At the end of their conference in Liverpool I wrote a "10 things we've learned" blog which said that the Lib Dems had made up their minds about the coalition ? and that they liked it. Twelve months later, after a crushing defeat in the local elections, the mood is rather different. In the Guardian today Polly Toynbee is floating the idea of the Lib Dems turning left. "Behind the scenes quietly better relations are growing between Ed Miliband's camp and many Lib Dem MPs, softly anticipating a future together," she writes. It is possible that Labour or the Conservatives could win an outright majority at the next election. But at this point the chances of another hung parliament seem high and, for that reason, it would be nice to know what this battered, much maligned, but curiously resilient party actually thinks. I've just arrived in Birmingham for a conference that lasts until Wednesday. Hopefully, I'll find out.
The conference formally starts at 2.30pm. Here's the agenda.
2.30pm: Paul Tilsley, the deputy leader of Birmingham city council, opens the conference with a short speech.
2.40pm. A debate on party business. Norman Lamb, Nick Clegg's chief parliamentary will speak. It is possible too that there might be a vote on the party's decision not to have a proper vote on the health bill. (Evan Harris, who is leading the campaign to rewrite the health bill, has written about this in the Guardian today.)
3.10pm: Delegates will debate a motion on Lords reform saying elections should start by 2015.
3.55pm: Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, will speak. She will confirm that the government will consult on plans to allow gay and lesbian couples to get married.
4.15pm: Delegates will debate a motion criticising the government's plans to limit the amount of time for which disabled people can claim the contributory employment and support allowance.
5pm: Another short debate on party business, including a contribution from Tim Farron, the party president. That's the end of the formal conference business.
6.30pm: Nick Clegg, Sarah Teather, David Heath, Don Foster and Alistair Carmichael will speak at the conference rally.
I'll be blogging all afternoon and I'll post a summary after the conference finishes at 5pm. My colleague Paul Owen will then take over the blog to cover the rally and any other late breaking news.
Shortly I'll post a round-up of the best Lib Dem news from today's papers.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/sep/17/liberal-democrat-conference-live-day-1
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