Via the BBC blogs:

This afternoon’s discussion at the Lib Dem conference on tax cuts was one of the best debates I have heard at a party conference in many a year. In fact, not since Labour’s big nuclear disarmament debate of the 1980s have I heard exchanges so passionate and genuine.

The Lib Dems managed to organise it so that both sides were properly represented without trying to stage manage things in the way that other parties are occasionally suspected of doing. And I even got the impression that one or two people may have cast their votes on the basis of the arguments they had heard - it’s pretty rare that happens in politics these days.

But the best little feature - amidst a long series of five minutes speeches - was a ten minutes gap where ten delegates were given just 60 seconds to make their point. And it was remarkable how people spoke better in 60 seconds than they would probably have done in 5 or 10 minutes.

Read the full piece here.

Related posts:

1. Conference: Make It Happen debate… the live-blog
2. Has Making it Happen made it happen for the Lib Dems?