Conference 24

I arrived in sunny Liverpool last night for what will be my 24th Autumn Party Conference.

I suspect it could be one of the more interesting ones!

No doubt the media, as ever, will be full of stories about how the party is about to go down the plughole, but in the 24 years I've seen them say that it hasn't happened yet!

I hope we will see the party start to assert itself. In my view we need to put a bit more emphasis on what our policies are and what we stand for, rather than appear to fully support everything the coalition decides.

I do think the public will give us credit for having taken the decision to go into the coalition, but I also think they will respect us even more if we are honest about some of the compromises we are having to make.

Anyway - I'm off to train folk now, so I'll see you later.