Special conference

Our special conference in Birmingham was a really amazing event, not least because it demonstrated the capacity of the party to summon nearly 2,000 Liberal Democrats to Birmingham on a Sunday at four days' notice and administer an event of that scale without a (visible) hitch. All credit to Lucy Billingsley and the Liberal Democrat conference team for that.

There are plenty of reports of the debate - including by Mark Pack here, by Mark Thompson here, and of course the collected thoughts of participants via Twitter. (In which I briefly participated until the battery in my new BlackBerry gave out).

Those few who spoke against the coalition did so in sorrow rather than anger, and were listened to with respect. Highlight speeches from Simon Hughes and Tony Greaves were among the best I've ever heard, and conference gave a deeply affectionate welcome to the wonderful Evan Harris who was so cruelly deprived of his Oxford West & Abingdon parliamentary seat on 6 May. The final vote was overwhelmingly in favour of the agreement, with only ten or so out of nearly 2,000 participants voting against. The decision that Nick Clegg should speak after the debate was over, rather than seeking to persuade the membership in the debate itself, was absolutely right.

In some ways it's a pity that it was decided that the press should be excluded, as the debate showed the party at its absolute best. However, it's perhaps arguable that if the press had been there, we wouldn't have had the kind of event we had - but that's something we'll never know, as it's a bit like the question about opening the fridge door to see if the light's on. There's anecdotal evidence from several colleagues about the national press only wanting to talk to people opposed to the agreement, which saddens but doesn't surprise me - so goodness knows what they would have done to coverage of our conference to make it fit the story they want to write.

I voted for the agreement, and for all nine amendments which were put forward to the main motion - and which were accepted by the movers of the motion. An historic day indeed.