After copious bar lurking I finally managed to get to a fringe event: Richard Dawkins! I confess to being a little disappointed that all he did was read excerpts from his book, but then he wasn’t being paid and he is on a book tour… so you can hardly blame him. I still remain depressed that it’s necessary for him to keep pointing out that the evidence for Evolution puts it beyond doubt (not just reasonable doubt).

Someone asked him whether he would support the teaching of critical thinking skills, reason and philosophy to school children. He replied that he would – with the caveat that he’d want philosophy swapped for statistics, and that he’d have to take into account the economic considerations about what should be dropped to make room for it.

He’s right though, and I also agree that this is something that needs teaching at school. I only started learning about this whole subject area a few years ago – a criminal waste of the previous 10 years, if you ask me.

The highlight, though, had to be the organiser asking for ‘one more question, from a woman please, to balance things out.’ The woman who got the microphone then said,

“I’m just going to pass this to my husband”

.. at which point the audience cracked up. Who said the Lib Dems lacked a sense of humour? I thought this moment was wonderful – made my day.

After that I went onto Liberal Drinks, where I had a truly brilliant argument with Joe Otten and Ian Eiloart about libertarianism, about philosophy and all sorts of things. Joe’s just about the only person I know who disagrees with me that doesn’t argue from an emotive perspective – he uses actual reasoned arguments – absolutely wonderful. I’m still not convinced but I do always feel challenged, and that’s very welcome.

I also spent rather a lot of time telling people how much I wanted to strangle Costigan Quist for closing down his blog. See, my argument is simple: The Lib Dems need an advocate in the newspapers, right? So, wouldn’t it be nice for someone who wins the Lib Dem Blog of the Year to use that as a springboard to bigger and better? Still, none of the real superstars of the blogosphere needed an award to get them there – Guido and Iain did perfectly okay without such things…. hmm have I just talked myself out of my own argument? I think I have. Oh well.

If you want to know how I’d improve the BOTYs, I’d simply scrap them altogether and replace it with a fringe event where ‘shortlisted’ bloggers are invited to read out bits from their blog, give a talk, whatever they want – just celebrating the medium and giving them an opportunity to talk directly to Lib Dems live and in person.

Okay, final run through for my talk tonight, then off to the Conference center to hand out leaflets for it with the Liberal Vision crew for a bit. Wish me luck!

Lot’s more people in suits than I imagined. It seems the days of sandals and beards may well have passed. That or the Marriott hotel has a policy of preventing beardy sandal wearers entering the building. It’s funny how many people look like Tories. If it wasn’t for the lanyards, I really wouldn’t have a clue.

My intern is returning to derby now, so I’m sat in a bar with Liberal Visioner Sara Scarlett, who’s every bit as feisty as you’d imagine, and sharp to boot and we’re watching out for people we recognise. Have had a long (and interesting) chat with fellow Lib Dem Blogger Mark Valladares, husband of the party’s president and altogether charming and friendly man – one of those people that seems to know absolutely everyone.

WARNING: THIS PICTURE HAS BEEN AIRBRUSHED

Armed with Wi-Fi and a laptop, I’m now trying to get a handle on everything’s going on. The next big event is the Richard Dawkins fringe – the War on Irrationality. I can’t wait for this one. I’ve heard a rumour that Richard’s been a Lib Dem voter for 25 years, something which fills me with a spazzy joy. Seriously, this actually makes me feel pretty good about being a Lib Dem. Wonder if I’ll get a chance to grab a few words with him?

In other news, Alex Massie of the Spectator has been mulling the prospect of voting for the Lib Dems… if there were a few more liberals of the classical variety kicking around. Is there some kind of effort to reclaim the word ‘liberal’ to something I’d recognise?

More on this later. There’s still a lot of work to do in helping other people who share my particular view of liberalism feel able to stand up and express their opinions and views without fear. That’s ‘step one’ I think. One thing that attending Lib Dem Conference is showing me is that this party is a lot cooler and more open minded than I realised. They’re mostly reasonable and can be persuaded by good argument. I mean, that’s probably why Richard Dawkins likes us.

There is hope, but it needs people to be willing to stnad up and make those interventions and argue properly, positively and openly. The party is what we make it, but the people who want to change it are sat in the pub drinking (and celeb spotting… was that Nick Clegg doing the classic, ‘walking up the prom saying something interesting’ scene?) instead of debating on the floor.

So, I must still be at conference because my feet are killing me and my head’s splitting.

I don’t know what these things are usually like. I got up at 5am and began the epic journey down to Bournemouth, stopping about half way to pick up my intern for the day, Stuart Sharpe (nominated for Best Non-Lib Dem blog at the BOTYS). I was going to show him the ropes and pretend that the life of a blogger is both glamorous and exciting.

Well, so we arrived, got parked then found ourselves running up a very steep hill trying to find the first fringe event. By the time we arrived I was sweating like a pig (I’d like to say ‘glowing’ but I’m afraid that would be stretching reality one fact too far). I ended up having to run away to powder my nose (not *that* kind of powder), and as a result missed Dyke’s newsworthy bit about the BBC’s role in politics. Oh well. The rest of the event was okay…. Guido has a good bit:

Hands up if you think Lord Rennard shouldn’t pay back the £42,000?

No-one did.

There you go then.

Anyway, this remains the only proper politics fringe I’ve been to so far. After that I decided to impress my intern by spending the afternoon having drinks with (shameless name dropping alert) Guido, Nick Cohen of the Observer, Lynne Featherstone, Mark Reckons, Sara Scarlett and Mark Littlewood.

Guido, by the way, is starting to look like a walking pint of Guinness, with jet black hair with a sort of tuft of white on top.

I’d like to say I planned this, and that this is normal, but it’s not – it just sort of happened. Felt very well connected, but of course it’s all an illusion, and I did have to tolerate being introduced as ‘The Right Wing Lib Dems’ (all 3 of us). Funny.

Of course someone was missing – Thankfully Iain Dale himself was unfortunate enough to find himself on his own in the Marriott, at which point my intern prodded and poked me until I went over and said hi. Poor guy.

Spent the next ten minutes celeb spotting – Michael White, Shirley Williams and my favourite Andrew Neil – I told my intern he could have £20 CASH if he ran off with Andrew’s wig. Sadly, it didn’t happen and to be honest I reckon Andrew can run faster anyway.

Then it was the BOTYS where, as you’re probably already aware, was a complete FIX and I didn’t win anything! Apparently the judges turned out to have actual skills in judgement… who knew? So ends the blogging onanism season for this year and normality can be resumed. Congrats due to Costigan and Mark. Well done guys

So I’m getting ready for conference. I’ve got a talk to prepare for (please do come to the Politics and Prohibition event), a car to rent, and I’ll be heading down on Sunday in time, hopefully, for the first Liberal Vision event, Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem which has Greg Dyke and Guido as panellists.

Then, in the evening it’s the Lib Dem Voice BOTY party, which I may or may not be too drunk and/or involved to blog about too much, although I will have my iPhone with me – Follow me on Twitter!

There’s no plan after that – I’m going to follow my nose and find interesting things happening, take photos, shoot videos and try to figure out what on earth is going on. Seriously, what the hell is going on? People want to know!