Report from Bournemouth

With my own small business, my community commitments and my political life there are very few spaces in my diary. On Friday evening I spent a pleasant hour at the Bexhill in Bloom award ceremony. As a judge for the town gardens this year I was pleased to address the meeting and say how honoured I was to examine the Town's horticultural gems at close quarters.

Following that I made a dash to Bournemouth to get some sleep before the beginning of a busy Party Conference schedule.

There is a view that delegates are all here just for a good time. That is far from the reality ! As the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bexhill and Battle this Conference is one of my main opportunities to get involved in the formation of future policy, and in a packed programme it is not always easy to get to all the meetings, briefings and trainings as well as the lively and robust debates on matters of the moment.

The motion on Parliamentary Expenses debated first thing on Monday morning was unanimously supported.

Historically Liberal Democrats have always taken active steps to clean up politics. Liberal Democrats at Westminster blocked the Tories' attempts to exempt expenses from the Freedom of Information Act and Labour's attempts to prevent publication of expenses.

Voters are justifiably angry but tarring all politicians with the same brush is not the way forward. Taxpayers have the right to know how their money is being spent.

The motion on expenses gives Liberal Democrat MPs a strong mandate to put transparency and honesty back into the system. We must ensure that faith in democracy is restored.