Lib Dem Conference

Very “interesting” opening.

He’s speaking quite well and quite eloquently. (So far)

Did he say anything about women having a bit of privacy when they take their clothes off?

I watched all of it.

I didn't think here was a huge amount of detailed substance to it but then the Lib Dems are never going to be in power as a standalone party. However they could be in coalition with Labour after the next election.

I think Davey was setting out what his party would demand in return for that majority i.e. closer ties with Europe, controls on AI, personal tax cuts funded from growth through easier trade with Europe, not through benefit cuts.

And he’s right about allowing people to have more say in the matters that affect them e.g. having a say in the kind of houses that are built locally rather than having the decisions of councils and developers imposed upon them.

Much of what he said accords with what Richard Murphy has been saying for a long time now, We need a politics of care. To that end it’s worth reading this:

Politics for People and the political economy of care: the core principles

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/02/04/politics-for-people-and-the-political-economy-of-care-the-core-principles/#gsc.tab=0

Extracts:

1 - Care is foundational, not residual

Politics for people begins with a simple truth: well-being and care for people are not added once markets have taken their share. They are the conditions that make everything else possible.

People cannot work, learn, create, or participate democratically unless they are cared for when young, ill, disabled, ageing, or simply exhausted. The political economy of care, therefore, treats well-being and care for all not as a discretionary cost, but as essential social infrastructure. Any political system that seeks to minimise care spending is, by design, destructive. Politics for people does the opposite: it provides for everyone.

7 - The state enables care; it is not a household

Politics for people rejects the household analogy for government.

A caring state does not ask how care can be afforded in narrow financial terms. Instead, the political economy of care asks what care is needed, what real resources exist, and how they can be mobilised without inflation or ecological harm. In the political economy of care, public finance is a tool for coordinating the delivery of well-being and care for everyone, not a moral constraint imposed on society.

I think people. remember their last stint in government…and that was hardly a success! Wasn,t he promising no tuition fees up until the vote and then reneged on it.amonst other things,
The man is a buffoon ,like Boris who thinks his “fun” stunts will make him popular…he needs to give his head a wobble folk can see what he is

I think you've confused Nick Clegg with Ed Davey.

paddyann54

I think people. remember their last stint in government…and that was hardly a success! Wasn,t he promising no tuition fees up until the vote and then reneged on it.amonst other things,
The man is a buffoon ,like Boris who thinks his “fun” stunts will make him popular…he needs to give his head a wobble folk can see what he is

That was Nick Clegg not Ed Davey.

There were no “fun stunts”, he’s nothing like Johnson and his speech today, if nothing else, was pretty sincere, compassionate and aimed at all people.

Davey was challenged over student tuition in the run up to the 2024 election. He admitted his mistake, said how difficult it had been in coalition. The Lib Dems paid the price in 2015 including losing his own seat but somehow we got another nine years of Tories and the disastrous Brexit.

To be fair Ed Davey was renowned for his stunts during the General Election and previous party conference. So l can understand the comparison the Boris. Both did stunts to grab the headlines.

*with Boris

Graphite

Davey was challenged over student tuition in the run up to the 2024 election. He admitted his mistake, said how difficult it had been in coalition. The Lib Dems paid the price in 2015 including losing his own seat but somehow we got another nine years of Tories and the disastrous Brexit.

But surely he wasn’t leader then?

Unfortunately if you act like a clown you can never be taken seriously by the electorate.

No, Clegg was and Davey was never responsible for education but parties have whips when it comes to voting plus there’s a lot of departmental horse trading goes on that we are not party too. This was a time when Osborne was slashing expenditure including skewering pensioners so students were not the only ones to suffer in the austerity drive.

As for stunts, Davey made it clear at the time of the 2024 GE that he was staying away from the slanging matches. Instead he used the time to draw attention to issues such a clean water or rather dirty water with paddle board and jetski stunts.

The Lib Dem’s were the minority party in the coalition with David Cameron’s Tories. They couldn’t get everything they wanted. They lost on tuition fees but they gained for instance on the invaluable Pupil Premium, a Lib Dem policy on which Cameron conceded.
And things can be looked at the other way round, GG13 - a decent serious politician not afraid to make a fool of himself. Not that I think it very important either way.

OldFrill

I think you've confused Nick Clegg with Ed Davey.

Nick Clegg sold his A**e to Zuckerberg. 🤬

Thanks for the reminder of that winterwhite

More achievements here:

www.libdemvoice.org/achievements-of-the-libdems-in-coalition-20102015-54382.html

Instead he used the time to draw attention to issues such a clean water or rather dirty water with paddle board and jetski stunts.

Yes, he did, an issue which should concern us all.
Our rivers and seas are highly polluted and, as a parent and grandparent whose children and grandchildren enjoy water sports, especially kayaking and paddle boarding, it is very worrying.