New era
Breaking new ground in Aviemore where Scottish LibDems are conferring.
New federal leader in Nick Clegg who鈥檒l speak this afternoon.
New challenge for the party in that they鈥檙e now in opposition at Holyrood. (This is their first annual conference since that development.)
New stuff from 大象传媒 Scotland. We鈥檙e streaming umpteen hours of the conference live online.
And I conducted a this morning with Nicol Stephen, the Scottish party leader.
Intriguing stuff, generally. Loved the question from the guy who wanted to know why the LibDems were utterly and totally rubbish.
But enjoyed the exchanges, based on your submitted questions, about the proposed party on Holyrood powers.
Mr Stephen says it will be a Commission 鈥 not the review favoured by G. Brown.
Mr Stephen also says he will not sign up to a report which involves transferring some power back to Westminster.
To be frank, he took a bit of time to get to that position 鈥 explaining that his caution was prompted by the fact that 鈥減owers鈥 are regularly returned through Sewel (or legislative consent) motions.
But, with caveats lodged, it was ultimately firm - 鈥測es鈥 to pursuing the cross-party Commission but 鈥渘o鈥 to returning any powers. No to the PM鈥檚 two-way street.
I'm 
Comments
Brian, Nicol Stephen has gone up in my estimation recently. He is right to say "no" to returning powers to Westminster.
He had a very good "Question Time" last night too. Strong, considered, persuasive answers on the Michael Martin and Fidel Castro questions.
Hi Brian just watched your web cast with wee Nic. He still has not said what he means by sleaze and what the First Minister or Civil Servants are meant to have gained from the process. Rather than the smell of sleaze, I get a hint of BS from Wee Nic.
Brian. You have a good try at selling it, but I'm afraid I take a dim viw of the 大象传媒's change of policy on broadcasting party conferences. God knows they are not always scintillating viewing (!) but the 大象传媒 should show us as much real politics as possible on the terrestial channels, not just the website.
On the LibDems, I think Nicol was right to draw comparisons between the current commission on Holyrood powers and the constitutional convention. I'm old enough to remember when that got going. The media demanded instant results from it and then when they didn't get them they said 'oh it isn't working'. But it did work. The parliament exists today because of it. Lesson? Don't expect instant results. And Gordon Brown won't be able to control it either. Tony Blair didnt want to deliver devolution in 1997, you know. But he had no choice. The convention had decidede and he couldn't overturn that. It'll be the same for Brown or Cameron when this one reports.