There will be a full Lib Dem Conference in September after all

Good news for lovers of the Liberal Democrat Conference and for party democracy: there will be a full-length event in Brighton this September.

This was to have been the fourth year in five without a proper Lib Dem Conference. When everyone expected an autumn election, and shortly before Rishi Sunak scuppered those expectations, the party's federal board proposed that a greatly curtailed event should be held this year.

Now comes news that the board wants to return to the original plan: a conference at the Brighton Centre between 14 and 17 September. This decision is subject to review by the federal council, but I can't see why it should object.

Let's hope that something doesn't crop up at the last minute - civil war between East and West Sussex, plague in Peacehaven, an outbreak of violence in Brighton led by a teenage Catholic gangster - to spoil things.