The Liberal Democrats Conference in Liverpool was a disaster

for the majority of the 1,500+ journalists who attended.

Hundreds and hundreds of the journalists who turned up in Liverpool, whether they were in the conference hall, the stunning exhibition, the many bars or even trying to sneak into the member only training were there to report on the great divide in the Party.

Unfortunately for them, it never existed and to be honest, I don't think it ever will in the way the media want.

One senior journalist said to me on Wednesday morning, "there have been some grumbles though".  As I then replied, how does a few grumbles equate to the masses of column inches that appeared throughout the week.

I think journalism is an art, but many now report their opinion rather than the news.

As I was at conference this year as the Exhibition Manager and running the VIP tours and lounge, I spoke to many if not all the exhibitors and the message was the same, if you read the newspapers you assumed you were at an entirely different conference.

One of the commercial exhibitors, who I won't name as they are at other Party conferences as well said that she was "appalled by the complete rubbish the papers were writing", especially on the alleged splits which just simply did not exist in the way you read about.

Overall, a great conference, in fact one of the busiest I have ever attended, certainly the one with the best atmosphere ever and to be honest the one I have been the busiest at, lots of working not a lot of socialising.

Conservative Minister to address the Liberal Democrat Conference this weekend

The Housing Minister, Conservative MP, Grant Shapps is to be the key note speaker at a fringe meeting hosted by Shelter and CentreForum called, What will the legacy of the economic downturn be for housing?

This will offer a real insight to what the Conservative Party is really thinking (I hope), well certainly on housing anyway.

Has the economic crisis really made us think any differently about the housing market, is it time we started to take the private rented sector more seriously, and will house-building ever recover?

The speakers will consider how, in a tight public spending environment, we can justify spending money on housing and how, in a competitive political environment, we can push housing up the agenda.

In my opinion as one of those trapped in the private renting sector currently while house prices in Scotland continue to rise, housing is one of the topics that needs to be addressed by the Liberal Democrats in Government, so this is a fringe meeting I certainly hope to attend.

The speakers at this fringe meeting on Sunday 19th September, 8pm - 9.15pm held in the ACC, Hall 1C are Grant Shapps MP, Conservative Housing Minister, Campbell Robb, Shelter and Councillor Richard Kemp, Local Government Association with Chris Nicholson, CentreForum in the Chair.

Hopefully this will be interesting for people to have a chance to hear and question one of the Conservatives within the Coalition at our own conference.

I may well add to this post when I am a little more awake.