In a windowless room, those members who made it to the conference centre in time, and weren’t skiving on the Beatles tour, went through a package of Powerpoint slides this afternoon.

The slides showed, line by line, in red, all the deletions and additons to the party constitution which are proposed. These proposals are for an extremely important and refreshing reason: they open up attendance and voting at conferences to all members, rather than representatives.

This change was decided upon at the last Glasgow conference. This meeting was to consult upon the alterations of the constitution to enact the change.

It was all great fun. We had some wonderful discussions about whether to use the term “member” or “party member” (“member” won the day helped by Colin Rosenstiel from Cambridge having a copy of the constitution on his lap). We had points about brackets, “fewer” rather than “less” etc etc. Simon Pike from Newbury and West Berkshire party was on fire (with regard to points of drafting, for example: “if you have the word “appropriate” then the phrase “presently in force” is redundant”, he said with a palpable sense of triumph).

Did you know that the term “typing” is anachronous? It must be because someone said so at the meeting. I typed it down straight away.

The use of the word “tautologous”, by Mr Rosenstiel, was a particular climax of the afternoon.

I felt sorry for the two stewards beetling back and forwards between Messrs Pike and Rosenstiel as they made multitudinous points.

But, it was all very important stuff, and I congratulate meeting chair Sue Doughty for patiently allowing everyone to have their say.

But I think, with hindsight, I should have gone on the Beatles tour with the editor of this esteemed organ.

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.