Tim Farron told Peter, a 15-year-old schoolboy who had confessed to being a bit of a “politics nerd” during his Q&A that he therefore hoped “you feel at home in this sub-cult group here”.
But this was just a joke, of course. Because it turns out that crushing electoral defeat is brilliant for trade, party membership-wise. The surge since May means that weirdly, as Farron told the conference, this year’s attendance is the biggest ever.
You have to hope the keen new members aren’t put off by the byzantine complexities of the party’s agenda. The first motion this morning, calling for a “transgender and intersex health charter” runs to four pages (and 122 lines) while one amending the party’s constitution is a mind-numbing seven pages.
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But Farron kept things simple. True, the questions weren’t exactly the Spanish Inquisition, but Farron glided through it. On potential anti-Corbyn Labour defections to the Lib Dems, he insisted he didn’t want to be “home wrecker for Labour MPs” but a “home builder”.
Seeking to deflect criticisms that it might be hard as a liberal to endear himself to Labour’s social democrat wing, who tend not to be all that liberal on law and order, or mass surveillance, or bombing targets in Syria, Farron insisted: “I’m a liberal and a social democrat.” Earlier, asked about the same issue on the Andrew Marr Show, he had just said: “We are liberals.” But hey, put it down to “honing the message”.
On Marr, he had masterfully slapped down efforts to commit the party to prohibiting ice-cream vans – or more precisely “any diesel-powered vehicle... keeping engines running while parked”. The clause was a “well-intentioned” attempt to reduce carbon emissions, he said, but “Mr Whippy is safe in my hands”. Brave words. The mobile ice-cream industry, at least, will be watching That Vote carefully.
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But the highlight was when he was asked – on the back of Sir Elton John seeking a meeting with Vladimir Putin – whom he’d most like to meet. Farron identified his teenage heartthrob Wendy Smith of Prefab Sprout. Sportingly she later tweeted “It’s a date,” paving the way for one of the great political-cultural encounters of 2015. Unless, like Elton, Farron is being cruelly hoaxed.
