It’s a long way from Mid Suffolk to Southport. Actually, it’s a long way from Mid Suffolk to any of the Party’s usual Federal Conference venues, which may explain why I didn’t travel up. Conference isn’t, after all, everyone’s cup of warm beverage…

That does mean that I’ve had some time to prepare for today, so what do I have for you?

In light of the decision by Conference to refer back the Macdonald Report on the Party’s disciplinary procedures, I offer some thoughts from the perspective of someone who sits on Appeal Panels. I’ve tried to be reasonable…

For the benefit of those of you who also didn’t make it to Southport, I’ve covered the housing policy proposals that emerged. For older people like myself, the current situation is a pretty good one, but catastrophic for young people given the average cost of a house in many of our urban centres relative to salaries. And yes, interest rates are much lower now than they were twenty years ago, but it’s getting the deposit together and servicing the capital repayments that is such a barrier to home ownership.

We have another new contributor today, as Rich Wilsher has written for us about the voter ID trial that is being undertaken in Bromley, on the Kentish fringes of London. Will it, as many liberals suspect, suppress turnout amongst the young and the highly mobile, just to name two groups likely to be affected?

Jess Insall made something of a splash in Southport with her call for gender-neutral school uniforms, which followed on from her speech at the Scottish Conference. There has been some fairly egregious misrepresentation of what she was calling for, so I’ve chosen to publish her speech on Saturday so that everyone can see exactly what it that she is calling for.

We’ve also got this week’s Golden Dozen, courtesy of the boss. Is it really 510 editions? It seems like only yesterday…

And yes, other things might turn up, so watch this space…

* Mark Valladares is the Monday Day Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice.