As party members descend on Bournemouth beach tomorrow, Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron will be eagerly preparing for the evening’s Conference Rally – a jolly jamboree of delegates, senior party figures and hacks.
He’ll be joined by “special guests”, likely to include figures such as Paddy Ashdown, to embolden all those assembled and set the tone of the official launch of the party’s ‘fightback’.
The mood is expected to be upbeat but apprehensive. Expect to hear much talk of the party’s role in tempering the worst excesses of the Conservative-led Coalition Government and its achievements championed in spite of Labour’s economic legacy left in 2010.
However, all eyes will be on Mr Farron’s set-piece speech, due on Wednesday, which will have to set an altogether more serious tone. Faced with the party’s crushing defeat at the General Election and the search for a new, distinctive voice, he’s expected to directly challenge the argument that Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s new leader, will leave the Liberal Democrats an electoral irrelevance for foreseeable future.
“For my party, [Jeremy Corbyn’s election] potentially changes everything”, he wrote in today’s Guardian. In Mr Farron’s eyes, the Labour leader had “plugged into a mood” of public distrust in conventional politics and been able to capitalise on that discontent.
Mr Farron would’ve hoped to have achieved something similar himself a couple of months back. Now, however, the task becomes about positioning a liberal government as “an enabler, a creator of opportunity, a guarantor of freedoms, a voice for the powerless”.
There will certainly be challenges involved in positioning the Liberal Democrats as a party of the centre ground and appealing to those Labour supporters unhappy with the recent leadership outcome. The setpiece fightback speech will need to be bold but balanced, and provide enough meat for the media to sink its teeth into.
The bread and butter of the long weekend will be what happens on the conference floor. Delegates are set to debate policy motions on the refugee crisis, Britain’s future in the European Union, tourism, air quality and securing a global treaty on climate change – among other areas. The floor agenda is also punctuated with set-piece speeches from former party leader Nick Clegg and devolved party leaders. It will be interesting to see how effusively they back the party’s new leadership.
However, it’s the conference fringe that is likely to yield some of the more unscripted frank talking. Former Business Secretary Vince Cable will be doing the rounds, taking part in fringes on the party’s answer to the Conservatives’ economic policies and the legacy of the Coalition, while Nick Clegg will be taking part in a succession of fringes on the vexed issue of Britain’s future in the EU.
DeHavilland will be reporting from the conference floor and the fringe. Click here to find out more about our coverage.