Lib Dem councillors had their annual conference this week within the confines of Local Government House in Smith Square, London. Co-hosted by ALDC and the Lib Dem LGA group, the conference pulls together colleagues from across the country with our parliamentary team. This year, of course, our parliamentary colleagues have joined many thousands of Lib Dem councillors in actually being in charge of running things. Normally our councillors are more experienced at holding the reins of power than our MPs.

Cllr Richard Kemp has written a review for Total Politics:

Nick pulled no punches in telling us how difficult the decisions would be regarding the finances. Then he reminded himself, more than us, that he was with a group of people who were used to making difficult decisions. He opened out to us because we were in a private session about how the coalition was working, what its stress points might be. I reminded him that there could well be stresses between the central and local wings of the coalition parties about issues like elected police commissioners which both Tory and Lib Dem Councillors (in fact almost every councillor) think are half witted.

Read the rest of the post here.