News Blog - Times Online - WBLG

Podcast: Matthew Parris's audio sketch

In the first of an exclusive series of conference podcasts Matthew Parris talks to Charles Kennedy and Brian Paddick, gossips about Lady Campbell's handbagging and keeps the pink flag flying high

5 reasons for Ming to worry after conference

So Ming's speech got glowing write ups and the ICM/Guardian poll put them on 20 per cent, meaning activists returned home happy and MPs can breath a sigh of relief. But if the Liberal Democrats are thinking they can congratulate themselves for "getting away with it" in Brighton this week, they are mistaken.

Here are 5 reasons why

1. Last year Ming's age was a big issue at party conference, as it was this year. Next year - if there hasn't been a general election or a coup - it will still dog Ming, who will then be 67. Aides would be wrong to think he had "solved" the issue simply by talking about it.

2. Ming suggestively called David Cameron a "substance free zone" in last year's speech. This year he stuck more to the politics and delivered a sharper critique on Brown and Labour, suggesting a move to the centre. But Ming insists he is on the centre-left of British politics, and there was little in his speech that would attract disaffected Tory voters. Is this electorally sensible?

3. The party's message on tax, the most radioactive of issues, is confusing and Ming is largely to blame. Their policies would mean tax cuts for 90 per cent but on Sunday when Ming, apparently in error, agreed with the statement that his tax policies would "hammer" the rich without spelling out what it means. The public are confused and used to assuming the worse with the Lib Dems. The party must agree a line and stick to it.

4. It is hard for the third party to make the political weather, but the Liberal Democrats can and should try harder. They used to have a reputation for holding government to account effectively, by combing through government documents and Parliamentary Answers. Inexcusably, this has stopped in some key policy areas. Putting pressure on the government will generate easy positive headlines.

5. Above all, ditch the self pity. It was hard to escape the everybody-hates-us feeling in some corners of Brighton. Ming set the tone by blaming the media in his closing speech, as do so many others. What happened to the bold response and tough skin? Get over it and grow up. The party must get out of the comfort zone in order to make more of a impact.

The big moment

Well he did it, and did it well. Ming's speech - and for veterans of this party conference it has been long time coming - was worth waiting for. It went down well in the hall, not least because of the jokes, just one of the several key contributions of Sir Menzies young but clearly talented speechwriter Euan Roddin.

They included:

On John Redwood's tax commission: "Would you believe it?Advice from the Vulcan First Officer. Ideas straight from the bridge of the Starship Free Enterprise. Policies, Dave – but not as we know them."

On Boris Johnson: "The blondest suicide note in history"

It was a step change from last year, and some of the passeges were particularly fluent. They pleased the crowd, were delivered well, and lifted the mood in the hall. Delegates will go home happy

Politically it was also interesting, amounting to a rebalancing from last year where the centrepiece was a highly personal attack on David Cameron. This year there was no personal attacks, and the critique of Labour was much sharper. It amounted to a subtle shift further from Labour - providing some comfort to those who think he is too nice about Gordon Brown - and away from demonising the Tories to please left leaning activists.

One footnote: In the dysfunctional way that only the Liberal Democrats can, while every other Liberal Democrat in Brighton was in the hall listening to Ming's speech, the press office was sending out a flurry of releases on subjects as diverse as the flooding and counter terrorism policy. Four arrived in 11 minutes in my inbox. Utterly bizarre

The woman behind the handbag

Hell hath no fury like a leaders' wife scorned, as Elspeth, Sir Menzies Campbell's wife reminded Nick Clegg yesterday. Like Cherie, she is a serious force behind the leader and in a Times interview last year, he described her as his closest friend in politics.

The smoking ban has meant she has been prominent this year's party conference, standing on the pavement outside the Grand hotel having a cigarette.

As Clegg found to his cost yesterday, she is not afraid to challenge aggressively promote and protect her husband: for instance Elspeth often complains that her husband is a nightmare on holiday. No sooner do they arrive at their destination than he is already fidgeting to get back to work

But she has her slight weaknesses, and her love of the establishment is one of them. One story is that she used every chance encounter with Tony Blair to try to engineer a weekend at Chequers

A strange BBC press release

The BBC have just issued a somewhat odd press release reporting off camera remarks made by Sarah Teather, the higher education spokeswoman, after conducting an interview with Andrew Neil on the Daily Politics. The BBC operative, who distributed press releases round to print journalists, said it was being issued "on Andrew Neil's instruction". Maybe it's just me, but I think there's something uncomfortable about this. You decide...

LIB DEM CHAOS OVER COSY CONSENSUS

Leader’s office and frontbencher at odds over their tuition fees policy

Wednesday, September 19

In an interview with the Daily Politics, the Party’s Higher Education Spokeswoman, Sarah Teather, told Andrew Neil: Sarah Teather: “At the moment we are abolishing tuition fees but we are looking to review the policy and it will be slightly different at the next general election. I can’t say what it will be because we have a commission. We haven’t decided on the policy yet.”

Her comments are at odds with the Leader’s speech briefing paper handed to journalists this afternoon, the Liberal Democrats said their policy was to ‘scrap tuition fees’. It was used in the briefing as an example of how the Liberal Democrats are a radical alternative to the ‘Cosy Consensus’

After the interview, the BBC Daily Politics Presenter, Andrew Neil, showed her the briefing document and that’s when she said: “I’m just the Higher Education spokeswoman, no-one ever tells me anything”.

She was then seen by Andrew Neil, to head straight for Ed Davey, Ming Campbell’s Chief of Staff and was seen by Andrew Neil remonstrating with them.

Leadership ping pong

And lo, Chris Huhne plays Nick Clegg's "probably" with a very straight bat.

In a press briefing, he said: "There is no vacancy and this is premature to even talk about the possibility of there being a vacancy."I am not a sort of Michael Heseltine figure who plans the road map to Downing Street from the day they come out of nappies. I wait for opportunities and then decide at the time. I am very happy with what I am doing. I am very pleased Ming asked me to do the environment brief which I think is the key challenge facing the country."

A slap-down to his putative leadership rival? You decide.

It must be said that Mr Clegg's colleagues have not been terribly sympathetic. One suggested that the remark showed he hadn't spent very long in Parliament where you have to watch careless remarks. Another was obviously unimpressed, said he should have used a different formula of words to respond. Ed Davey, the party chair, said that there was no vacancy "and if you look at the exact quote you will see he is saying exactly what I have just said."

Why did Clegg do this?

As the 8am Radio 4 headlines have just revealed, the rules of the game here in Brighton have changed overnight. Nick Clegg, the party's home affairs spokesman, has gone further than before at a fringe meeting and said he would "probably" stand for the leadership after Ming goes.

According to Laura Kuenssberg in this post on the BBC website, when asked at a fringe meeting to state his future intentions, Mr Clegg said "if you are asking me would I stand against Ming, the answer is no". When pushed on the issue, he responded that "if there was a vacancy in the future then I probably would".

On one level this is no surprise - MPs talk frequently in private that they expect him to stand - but the normally cautious Clegg has avoided spelling such a move out so explicitly in public (and, to my knowledge, in private) before.

So the rhetorical arms race (probably) begins. Everyone will be hunting down Chris Huhne and after that just about ever other Lib Dem frontbenchers to see whether they too want to escalate.

But was this wise? This statement - virtually declaring his candidacy - will follow him round until the day Ming goes. It is hard to see how this intervention, from one of Sir Menzies most loyal lieutenants, is helpful because it gets the leadership back in the headlines. It could consequently irritate MPs who do not want to talk about this and resent another round of leadership headlines. Huhne could decide not to follow suit, and consequntly gain some advantage.

Twofer with Matthew Parris from the Liberal Democrat Conference

Daniel Finkelstein - Times comment editor and one time member of the SDP - talks to Matthew Parris - Times political columnist and former Tory MP - about the Liberal Democrat conference in a twofer.

Ghost of leaders' past

Around 4pm, there was an spontaneous stampede out of  the press room and through the Brighton Centre. "Charles Kennedy is asleep" cried one of my colleagues breathlessly as he burst into the conference hall

No such luck. Kennedy was there, in the front, as sprightly as ever, preparing to speak in the poverty debate. It transpires that the hacks had fallen foul of Chinese whispers - one of the journalists had misheard "Charles Kennedy's about to speak."

But it was not a wasted journey. Kennedy - clearly on form - issued a robust rallying cry for party activists to hit back at critics, be bold and avoid looking too defensive. It was exactly the sort of speech Ming - who yesterday admitted he was "scared stiff" before speeches - would loved to have made himself.

"At the last election we held our heads up high," Kennedy declared, his speech interrupted by regular sustained bursts of applause (in contrast to the speaker who followed).

Friends of Ming like to point out that Kennedy will be welcomed back to front bench "when he decides he is ready" and suggest, leadingly, that his absence speaks for itself. But, as today proved, Charles is not without his uses for the party, although perhaps he reminds Ming a little too much of what he is not.

Ming the Meaningless

Sir Menzies Campbell's pitch to the electorate is that age is an advantage and  experience makes him a distinctive alternative, particuarly to David Cameron. Problem is, according to a new Channel 4 vox pop, nobody recognises him.

They asked voters to identify the Liberal Democrat leader from photographs of Alec Douglas-Home, the former prime minister, Victor Meldrew, the comedian and John Reid, the former home secretary. An overwhelming majority went for John Reid, with Sir Ming trailing in second place. No-one, thankfully, confused him for the other two.

Deeply unscientific. But the idea of John Reid - something of a sceptic on those very human rights issues dear to the Lid Dems' hearts - leading the party is too entertaining a prospect to go unnoted.

McCanns' ex-spokeswoman addresses conference

Justine McGuinness, who spent 89 days as the spokesman for the McCann family in Portugal, is fast becoming one of the key attractions in Brighton. Unsurprisingly, she has been besieged by activists and journalists wanting to know more about here time working for the McCanns.

So the public affairs guru must have known that when she stood up in the conference hall during the immigration debate to call for tougher border controls "to prevent children being moved out of Europe", people would inevitably draw a link with her former role. "Do it for our children", she cried, to a bemused audience.

Officially she tells those who enquire that she is not talking about the case. But in the bars, late and night, a few details have emerged. She has dropped several hints that she did not enjoy the closest relations with Gerry McCann, and also also that she was never intended to have an onscreen role as spokeswoman.

Ms McGuinness, who is looking for a safe Lib Dem seat, says she was brought to Portugal to try and change the privacy law which the McCanns believed was hampering the search for their daughter. She says she tried to handle the media "like a general election campaign" with open regular media briefings, but this upset some media outlets that wanted to get a scoop on their rivals.

The wrinkly party

It's not just Ming whose age (66) has been attracting attention. In the conference hall this morning, men were asked to put up their hands if they are over 65 and women over 60. According to my spy in the hall, an overwhelming majority of delegates put their hand up. The Tories are not alone in having so many, well, experienced delegates...

Hammered

Sir Menzies wriggled uncomfortably on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning after appearing to concede that the Liberal Democrats would "hammer" the top 10 per cent of earners on Sunday.

Caroline Quinn: You admitted at the weekend that the top 10 per cent of earners would be hammered by your proposals. Sir Menzies (interrupting): I didn't use the word hammered; Quinn: Well you agreed with it; Sir Menzies: Well no I..... [chuckle] Quinn: Lets not have this debate Sir Menzies: Well It's an important distinction

To prevent history being re-written, here is what he said on Sunday AM at the weekend that generated all those "hammered" headlines

Marr: .... which can only meant the other 10 per cent are hammered Sir Menzies: Yes, and yes, and those households whose income is in the order of seventy thousand pounds per annum

"Gosh, I'm a failure" - Ming

Time to send Ming on some media training. First the toilet picture, now a somewhat incautious quip during the Q&A with Sandi Toksvig. Bantering about whether both of them get butterflies before going on stage, he joked: "Gosh, I'm a failure", before grimacing when he realised what he had said.

Pointing to the future

It's happened again. A year ago today, Ming was photographed on the seafront at Brighton in front of the burnt out west pier. It was universally acknowledged to be a big mistake, allowing headline writers easy jokes about a burnt out leader whose ambitions were crashing into the sea. Huge black mark against the leaders' media team for allowing it to happen.

This morning, Ming was taken to the "earth ship", a eco-friendly public building. They process their own sewage, have solar pnels, all very impressive .... except that during the course of the photoshoot, Ming was pictured pointing down a toilet - which is where some believe he is taking the Liberal Democrat party.

Ming's press handlers have failed - again - to heed the lessons of pr 101. When when shown the picture, his spokesman, (who was still not aware of the photo two hours after it was taken) replied: "ah hah. Okay. Right. That's where they process the sewage inside the waste factory," adding that he was looking after print reporters and Ed Davey had been with Ming at the time.

Good to see we've already got the blame game going...

The Core Vote strategy

Core vote strategy is something of a dirty term in British politics. It has become shorthand for Tory retreat into issues that please its base - a strategy credited with keeping them in the lows 30s in general elections since 1997.

This year the Liberal Democrats in Brighton are having a core vote conference, with an emphasis on green issues and higher taxes on the rich (officially the message is 'fairer' taxes but Sir Menzies went much further yesterday and this morning's papers are full of Libs-to-hammer-the-rich stories). Both are undoubtedly activist-pleasing messages.

But is this a good idea? MPs, it seems, are divided.

On one hand, the argument goes, a party like the Liberal Democrats, with limited resources, can only realistically make the running in two or three issues. The environment, which is the theme of the conference, is the perfect Lib Dem topic, and unites the party activists. This is particularly important during this fraught conference, where the leadership would be unwise to open up battles on a new front.

On the other, talking about the same limited number of subjects risks the charge that they are more think tank than political party. They believe the only way they can reach out to new voters is to put forward a bold policy programme on areas like public services. The party does have a bold set of quasi-Blairite suggestions on health, driven by Norman Lamb,  and education, by David Laws. Some MPs believe there is a opportunity to make the political weather with a radical, anti-professional agenda. But there seems little attempt to push this agenda by Ming himself.

You could mischievously call this the Chris Huhne (environment) vs Nick Clegg (new agenda) debate, although both would run a mile from such labels.

There is a slightly more depressing theory: does it matter. As more long sighted Lib Dems remind themselves, the fate of the third party is determined by the performance of Labour and Tories. The first half of the year saw a Cameron bounce, the second a Brown bounce, leaving little room for Sir Menzies. As Tim Hames, the Times chief leader writer, points out, the Liberal Democrats would have struggled to get noticed over the last 12 months even if they had elected the Pope their leader.

But there is little sense to outsiders that the party are having this debate. After the difficult time that Sir Menzies has endured, it is understandable if he retreats into a more defensive, more core vote strategy. But not everybody is sure he is right.

Not Merciless, Just Ming?

Even Ming's advisers agree that Saatchi & Saatchi's winning advertising pitch to Labour - Not Flash, Just Gordon - is a stroke of genius. But senior party figures think that the obvious rejoinder for Ming - Not Merciless, Just Ming - doesn't quite send the right signals...

A little help from my (Facebook) friends

With the dreary inevitability of the uncle on the wedding dance floor, politicians have stumbled across Facebook and are busy admiring pictures of themselves beaming away on the profile page.

Is this an innovative way of tapping into the somewhat nebulous "new politics" concept? Or do you, like I did, read the following passage from the speech by Steve Webb - the party's manifesto chief - and weep.

"I discovered that my e-mail group are all ‘knocking on’ a bit – most of them are over thirty! What I wasn’t doing was reaching out to the younger people who are systematically disenchanted with the whole lot of us. And then I discovered Facebook.

"For those of you who are not familiar with Facebook it’s an internet site which allows you to keep in touch with networks of friends and acquaintances, post photographs and videos, create groups in support of particular causes and even give people an hourly update on your changing mood if you want. There’s barely a student in the country who isn’t connected and in the last six months I’ve built up a group of nearly 2,000 friends, more than half of whom are young people who live in my constituency. At first they thought it was just a spoof, rather in the way that I suspect the Queen’s profile on Facebook may not be entirely genuine.

"But as soon as they realised that their local MP really was there, accessible at the push of a button, the messages and comments have flowed in. I have learned that probably the biggest single practical issue that bothers local young people in my area is – buses. They are fed up about the cost, the cleanliness, the frequency and the routes. So when I get back to Westminster in a few weeks’ time I’ll be seeking to lead a debate on buses, to table questions on buses and to get things changed about buses. Then I’ll tell my ‘Facebook friends’ what I’ve been up to and they will see that politicians do listen and act."

Public enemy number one

Sunday, 11am: Liberal Democrats have, it seems, a pretty ambivalent opinion of Gordon Brown. He is a friend of Ming (as we are reminded perhaps a little too often by Ming and those who interview him), he is serious, and he has dropped hints on PR, so can he be all bad?

But one thing unites them: a visceral loathing of David Cameron. They have an uncontrollable gut reaction to him, his privileged background, wealth and manner. What's more, they are incandescent at at the way he has been going for the green vote. THEIR green vote. The only way the red mist lifts is to repeat ad tedium that Mr Cameron gets his official car to follow him when he cycles to work.

One recent piece of private polling has given the party a boost, I'm told. A year ago, a focus group was shown pictures of Mr Cameron surrounded by children. The participants said it suggested the recently crowned Tory leader was a youthful family man, who cared about similar similar values to them.

The exercise was repeated much more recently. This time, the focus group labelled it a photo opportunity, a cynical PR ploy and were asking about the story behind the photo.

This comes with the caveat that I have not seen the raw data. But the Liberal Democrats are placing faith in this finding, and believe the public is receptive to suggestions that Cameron is more spin than substance. Expect to hear much more of this....

Update: A few more details have emerged. The focus groups took place in July 2006 and June this year. Participants were shown three photos: one of David Cameron on a bycicle, one with a baby and one in an environmental setting. A Lib Dem source said there was a "distinct" shift of mood, with the group more cynical about the motives of the photos this year. Apparently in the group two months ago, the members were particularly sceptical over the baby, assuming that it probably belonged to someone else (it was in fact his youngest son, Arthur).

What's the point of the Lib Dems?

Friday 7pm: "The most important thing next week is that we let people know what the point of the Liberal Democrats actually is," mused an ally of Sir Menzies Campbell earlier today, perhaps not realising they were speaking out loud.

For a party five to seven points down in the polls - which must now compete with the Tories for green-aware votes and whose anti-war support is falling away post Blair - this is not a question to be asking in public.

The good news is that the party believe they have found the answer. But it will only be spelt out in Sir Menzies' speech, on the sixth and final day of the Liberal Democrat conference. Until then, we can only wait and wonder.

Each party conference has its quirks, not least the Lib Dems who manage to invert normal political rules during their week at the seaside.

With a peculiar, chippy isolationism, the party spends its most public week discussing a curious selection of issues unlikely to wow the electorate from Israel (twice), women in prisons to excess packaging. Little attention is paid to the message on the six o'clock news. Meanwhile the party's democratic dogmatism means rank and file members vote on every party policy. No wonder broadcasters abandoned wall to wall coverage.

The only real gauge of success this week will be the volume level of mutterings over Sir Menzies' leadership, in the face of gloomy polling. The bulk of MPs appear in no mood for regicide, and few believe it would be smart to change leader when Gordon Brown is weighing up a snap election. But any veteran of family holidays will tell you that six days by the seaside is a long time, and there are precious few distractions in the conference programme.

"Have we given you enough to stop writing about Ming's future at conference?" enquired the ally, somewhat desperately earlier this week.

I have no idea.