It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the people who go along to party conferences are a little strange.

You need to be really, really into your brand of politics to make the trip. But even taking that into account, the Lib Dems are in a class of their own.

The party has a bit of a reputation for being inoffensive and soft, but the annual autumn conference – held this year in Bournemouth – is where they can really let their hair down.

Die-hard Liberal Democrats are given free rein to embrace the deep political nerdery that’s discouraged by the outside world, and as a result they can sometimes go a little nuts.

That’s the reason it’s often the one party conference that political journalists most look forward to – it’s not riddled with anxiety like Labour, nor self-satisfied like Reform, nor

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