It's all go.

Everyone seems to be having a busy time at conference, so much so that the bloggers down there aren't making many entries. Those that have managed to find their way to a computer are saying the time is flying by. Others seem to be admitting to having so much fun, they're burning the candle at both ends. According to Gez Smith on his BBC diary there is lots of freebie food and drink to be had to offset the cost of entry and accommodation. He does seem to have a lot to say about the freebies.

We seem to have some people rattled. Both the Mirror (as read by Steve Guy) and the Sun came out against us yesterday for opposing reasons. The Sun, in a bizarre nonsensical piece of polemic, reckoning we are too left wing and that we are going to wreck the economy, and the Mirror claiming we are just Tories in disguise. But perhaps it's no bad thing, as both start from the assumption that we are a major political party and worth bothering with. According to Charles Kennedy, "The Sun attack alongside the Mirror attack, where one thinks we are ludicrously right wing and the other ludicrously left wing, show we are probably getting it about right."

Yesterday's agenda was all about the Environment, and Welfare, continuing our position of being the most environmentally aware of the three main parties with a carrot and stick approach to environmental taxation, and transportation measures including the building of a new North-South high speed rail link. The issue of the rights of Ghurkha soldiers was discussed with, (according to Martyn Hencher) a Ghurha speaking really passionatly about his situation.

Today’s main issues are Law and Order, Health, and Pensions. Mark Oaten, was on the Today programme promoting tough Liberalism, which is really just saying the inelegant and liberal options to punishing offenders. Instead of mindlessly locking people up, community panels will have the power to issue constructive punishments that fit the crime, say hard graft replanting trees for vandals that wreck parks, rather than putting their feet up in a cell. Other policies up for debate include the draft manifesto pledges of free healthcare for the elderly and improved pensions for the over 75s.

The Today Programme keeps mentioning The Orange Book, claiming everyone is talking about it, however I havn't seen or heard any evidence to support that claim beyond BBC Radio 4.

The feeling I get from the news, and from what I do hear from my friends and fellow bloggers down there, is that everyone is really upbeat.