The polls are showing that the Lib Dems are losing the identity they worked so hard to create. Having Tories speaking at the conference is a definite way to further their descent towards irrelevance. It’s a Lib Dem conference, not a Coalition conference.

So we’re taking the news Cameron won’t be there from the Mail, but not from the clear announcements made by the party at the time that he wouldn’t be there?

And given the timetabling problems FCC already has, pretty sure Hague won’t get main hall podium time, but a big fringe event is likely. And also likely to be better for him.

Jack, which polls? I’ve always discounted YouGov polls for main voting intentions, and ICM polls dont indicate much of the sort.

No Tory will be at Lib Dem conference on the main stage – as usual we may have a Labour or Tory MP at the fringe but that is it!

The Daily Mail!? For fucks sake!

Do these snide little shots at the Lib Dems over irrelevant issues like who speaks at their conferences (reminder to Sunny: no one among the public outside of political geeks cares what goes on at party conferences) amount to your strategy of “resistance” to the coalition?

You really must be able to do better than that.

FFS. This rumour is just that, a fucking rumour. It never had any basis in fact as the party has been saying for ages. Tories are not and never were coming to address our conference apart from the occasional MP from Labour/Tories/whoever on the fringe.

I expected better from Lib Con. I can understand taking petty pot shots at the Lib Dems when there’s some basis for it in fact. But this is just churnalism. You’re assuming a rumour started by the daily mail is true and then you’re using them as the basis of your story. YOU’RE COPYING WHAT YOU SEE IN THE MAIL AND THEN CALLING IT AN ARTICLE. Do you not see what’s wrong there? That’s the kind of crap you see the tabloids doing, copying one factless story after another without ever bothering to fact check. Congratulations on sinking to their level.

Here, read what we actually fucking say about Hague’s “invitation”. I’ll give you a clue, the daily mail were about as accurate as they’ve ever been:

http://www.libdemvoice.org/no-official-hague-invite-to-lib-dem-conference-20616.html

@George Unfortunately LibCon has somewhat degenerated into a “how can we do anything to oppose anything the government is doing” fest, even when the government suggests doing good things Labour should’ve done but failed to do in 13 years, like limited electoral reform and scrapping ID cards etc.

I think Sunny feels guilty for having voted Lib Dem and is overcompensating by turning this into Labour Conspiracy, about the Labour left rather than the liberal (small l) left.

The thing is, people who voted Lib Dem are getting some Lib Dem policies. Labour wasn’t interested in LibLab cooperation and numerically it wasn’t going to happen. The Tories would’ve won or come first without an outright win anyway. I don’t see why Labour-leaning lefties have their knickers in a twist: yes the Tories are still nasty, but the Lib Dems’ presence in government has cut off the Tory Hard Right.

The only people who should be pissed off about voting Lib Dem are those tossers who secretly wanted to vote Labour instead, but Labour had abandoned them; they’re now running back to Labour, the minute Labour goes into opposition. Not the serious business of government for them: oh no, it’s all back to the 1980s, and endless Benn-led opposition. That’s what the Left is good at, after all!

http://millenniumelephant.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-5404-hard-labour-betray-you-again.html

That post does a good job of fisking Fake Phony Tony’s crappy calls for resistance to death, practically pissing over the Viscount Stansgate’s corpse.

@Blanco Quite right. Thanks for the link to the blogpost. I’d read it before but it was very enjoyable to read again

Isn’t this a bit like sending the best man off with the bride on the honeymoon instead of the groom?

@Bob B please tell me you’re not about to whip out the “civil partnership ceremony in sunny garden” homophobic book of Labour/media insults against the coalition govt.

Just as I’ve no principled objections to virtue, I’ve no objections in principle to civil partnerships between consenting adults either.

The protocols in the case of this ConDem love-in look rather peculiar to non-partisan observers. It’s starting to look like a carefully choreographed demeaning of the LibDems.

I have some sympathy with your last sentence, Bob B. Having said that, I don’t see why people find it so hard to understand what kind of power relations are likely to exist between two partners when one has five times the number/power of the other. Of course the Lib Dems are going to get heckled, and become tainted by association. They obviously thought this was a fair enough price for getting some of their policies implemented. Thus far I do think they’ve punched above their weight in terms of what was in the coalition agreement, what we’ve seen so far, and their inhibiting influence on the Tory Hard Right. Do you think Cameron could have ever correctly referred to Gaza as a prison camp had Tebbit rather than Clegg been his partner?

I must say, I find it rather odd that, after several hours of this story being proved utterly incorrect, Lib Con has not yet removed it. Or updated it to show that it’s false. I’m sure Sunny and Co must be very proud of their “integrity”.

Both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats seem to be pretty clear that the Daily Mail report is unfounded. Perhaps somebody somewhere – on the Tory side or at the paper – was trying to float an idea, or over-flamming some ongoing speculation into a fact, in which case they would seem to have made it less likely.

LibDemVoice quotes a party statement making clear there is no invitation to address the main conference, nor likely to be one
http://www.libdemvoice.org/no-official-hague-invite-to-lib-dem-conference-20616.html

Tim Montgomerie tweets: “I’m told there’s no truth to today’s Daily Mail report that Hague will be addressing LibDem conference”

Just had a look at Tory Home. They had the same story from the daily mail:

“The Daily Mail reports that William Hague is to speak at the Lib Dem conference…”

However, after the Lib Dems released a statement they added underneath:

“…but the Lib Dems insist there is no slot for him on their official conference agenda”

I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry that ConservativeHome has managed to get it right and LibCon hasn’t.

@16

Errrr have you read the article ??

Last line: “But the Libdem press office has been in touch today to confirm that William Hague has not been asked to speak at their conference.”

@17 Ah. That’s an update. it wasn’t there when I first read the article.

So the Lie Dems can’t even make up their minds about will they let one of their tory Masters talk to them at their jolly party.

No wonder they don’t know if they are coming or going.

Oblivion for the next 100 years beckons.

@19 Still better than ZaNuLabour who couldn’t make up their minds whether they were complicit in torture and illegal extradition flights or not.

(I hate silly terms like ZaNuLabour but LieDems is so childish it justifies my response)

((It doesn’t even make sense anyway; how have we lied?)

No Sally, the Liberal Democrats have always been very clear about it. That the media keep printing these stories is an indication that they’re so used to it from the other parties that they just assume it’s true, it never was, at all.

And seriously, “Lie Dems”? There’s reality, then there’s people who’re looking at it through faulty glases, then there’s you way off on the lunatic fringe. But don’t worry too much about being able to tell facts from media spin.

George, I concur, pretty sure that wasn’t there when I read it and commented either, there was a Twitter update to that effect as well.

We spend years critiquing the media for their detachment from reality, then start regurgitating Daily Mail stories without question.

‘ang about. Did anyone watch Nick Robinson’s doc about the coalition recently? The interview with Clegg? Where he (Clegg) says he changed his mind about cuts this year before the election, but still campaigned and debated on cuts next year?

And of course there’s VAT, a bit more contentious…

Goofy Clegg has changed his mind on a lot of things it seems. If you believe him.

Why did the Lie Dems spend all that money on posters that warned of VAT increasing? Quite generous of them to campaign against themselves. Of course they did not tell us that at the time.

“Hi, my name is Clegg and be warned if you vote for me I will put up VAT. You have had Blair the poodle, now you can have me….. Cameron’s bitch.”

“Lie Dems”? Seriously, “Sally” (a funny handle for an unemployed, pot-bellied balding 40-year old man to adopt, then again you do a good impression of a silly 13 year old girl), you’re becoming a parody of yourself.

What next?

Nick Clegg, in your forked tongue, becomes “Sick Legg”.

Chris Huhne, meet “Piss Poone”.

David Laws, you are now “Gayvid Lawless”.

Lib Dems = “Lie Dumbs”.

Lynne Featherstone = “Lyin’ Fasciststone”.

Maybe instead of calling you Sally, we should call you Silly? I think that would be communicating on your level. I also anticipate being called a brownshirt, as in “the Tories are just modern day brownshirts who want to do to trade unionists what Hitler did….” etc etc. Does that make the Lib Dems French collaborators?

If Mike Godwin was dead, he’d be spinning in his grave at the way you have made his Law enforceable upon pain of blogdeath on LibCon threads.

24

Shorter troll……”I got nothing.”

@21 It’s definitely an update as I read the story first thing in the morning and the time stamp on it now says 11:49. Odd really since Lib Con normally prefaces all updates under an “Update” heading. But I guess that must apply only when other people have done something/made a mistake and not them.

@25

No Sally. You seem to operating under a misunderstanding of what a troll is. A troll is someone who posts deliberately provocative and extreme comments which have little if any basis in fact and quickly scramble away from that base in order to be wild, ignorant, swivel-eyed and completely the product of a frothing-at-the mouth moron.

Or, to put it in terms you’ll understand: You smell like poo. Na na na na na na :p

But I guess that must apply only when other people have done something/made a mistake and not them.

You’re right that the story was updated and I should have prefaced it with an ‘update’ earlier.

But the story wasn’t ‘wrong’ as such when it was first posted – we frequently link to and publish excerpts from articles in the press. Once I got up and saw the message from the Libdem press office – I updated the story, but had to run out so I did it in a hurry, and also sent out a message in our Twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/libcon/status/20547699001