A good conference rally is fun to attend and tricky to report on, simply because there should be nothing new. The audience ideally leaves reminded of the key messages and enthused to fight the good fight – there’s plenty of time for controversy over the rest of the weekend.

As in Bournemouth, the rally took on a glitzy feel: dry ice, bright lights, (relatively) slick presentation.

Lorely Burt opened procedings with a few jokes, and promise of holding her seat in Solihull, where the Lib Dems overturned a 9,400 Tory majority last time round.

Then a selection of parliamentary candidates entered from stage right, each with a worthy policy vignette, some delivered better than others, and, of course, carefully chosen to present a good gender and ethnic mix.

Next came a big hitter – and they don’t come much bigger than Paddy Ashdown. Most politicians would shy away from using the word “existential” at any time, never mind in the first minute of a speech.

Not Paddy, who treated such conventions with the distain they deserve, as he relaxed with a hand draped across the lectern. He asked which party we should trust to sort out the economic mess, and most people in the hall probably guessed what the answer was going to be.

“You only get Vince Cable if you vote Liberal Democrat”, Paddy told us, to great applause.

He called for new Great Reform Act. Westminster should do far less – power should be handed down to nations and communities.

Shirley Williams – still magnificent after all these years – gave us more gravitas before Tim Farron did the comedy turn he does so well, and enthused everyone for the fight ahead.

Before Nick came on stage, there was the now-traditional mini-movie. This one had an assortment of people saying how rubbish Brown and Cameron are, and how wonderful Nick and the Lib Dems are. The movies are decent enough, but they never quite seem to work for me – not sure why.

Finally, Nick strode manfully onto stage do his stuff (the last few seconds of which even made it onto some of the news bulletins). As per the formula, Nick thanked, and bigged up, the other speakers before giving us some stiring, and suitably uncontroversial, words of his own.

Everyone trooped out, and those of us from Lib Dem Voice optimistically hoped they’d find our fringe event a more attractive option than the bar or dinner.