As you read this, Liberal Democrats will be arriving in York. I’ll be just about to head to lunch with some friends in a place called Sutlers. Never been there before, but anywhere that boasts of having 100 gins is good by me.

Conference kicks off at 3 with various consultation sessions. These are an important part of our policy making process. The Federal Policy Committee sets up working groups to look at various subjects. They take evidence from experts and consult members. Once they have done that, they draw their conclusions into a final paper which is debated by the full conference. This Spring’s consultations are:

15.00–17.30 21st Century Economy
Education
Rural Communities

16.30–18.15 Britain in the World

Then there’s a civic drinks reception at 5:15 and the Conference rally at 6:30.

We know that the rally will feature the first keynote Conference speech by new MP Sarah Olney along with contributions from Tim Farron and Nick Clegg. There will doubtless be surprise guests. The rally is always worth going to as it’s very upbeat and gets you in the mood for Conference.

I wouldn’t be doing my job as editor properly if I didn’t abuse my position to plug the Liberal Democrat Voice/Irish Liberal Democrats fringe meeting at 8:15 in Meeting Room 5 of the Novotel. Brexit has particular implications for Ireland and we’ll be discussing those with our Northern Ireland spokesperson Alison Suttie.

To get a flavour of what’s going on, have a look at the #LDConf hashtag on Twitter.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social