Business secretary Vince Cable used his speech to the Liberal Democrats' conference to spell out the dire nature of Britain's economic problems. He likened the current situation to a time of war before offering some modest suggestions to reform behaviour in company boardrooms and tone down executive pay.
On the conference fringe, the Guardian's own event posed the question of whether the party needs a "midterm makeover". Not a bit of it said Paddy Ashdown who urged his colleagues to dig in a maintain their positions.
With Lib Dem fortunes tied to the success or otherwise of the coalition government's economic policies, there are some glum faces around this year's conference venue.
Rightly so, say economics writers Will Hutton of the Observer and The Economist's David Rennie – the world economy is dangerously poised and there is little the Liberal Democrats can do about it.
