Of Tweed and Cardigans !

There has been some progress made by the Gender Balance Task Force and Ethnic Minority Lib Dems in beginning to make the Lib Dems reflect the composition of the UK today. Certainly the increase in the number of younger members of the parliamentary team outshines that of our rivals.

But.... the party still seems to be the domain of nice middle-class business and professional people. More Labour-inclined friends still see the Lib Dems as middle-aged cardigan or tweed bedecked people from, and largely representing, principally small market towns, suburban Britain and coastal resorts.

I am scheduled to attend Spring Conference, my first Lib Dem conference, so I will be able to see how true this glib assertion is. Anecdotal experience, mostly from the cities I've previously lived in, certainly put me off from joining the party sooner. The party needs to be able to speak with, to and for the less well-off like myself, otherwise talk of a fairer and socially just Britain is just that, talk !

Anyone got a cardigan I can borrow ?!