Brilliant speech by Tim Farron!

Well, I heard it and concluded it was 'all about me'. From "I watch X Factor with the kids" to "My mum worked her way through uni against all odds".

For someone who consistently stabbed Nick Clegg in the back during the co-ellition days I thought it was a speech worthy of Brutus.I even felt the tribute to Charles Kennedy was a populist addition as advised by his spin doctors.

I don't like Tim Farron at all, Nick Clegg was miles better. TF puts me off voting for Lib Dems at all.

Did you hear the whole speech, Absent? It is usual for a new party leader to spend a few minutes introducing himself, explaining where he has come from and what motivated him to enter politics. Tim did this, and came across as very authentic, unlike so many politicians. He then spent more than forty minutes talking about issues that should matter to all of us. He never "stabbed Nick Clegg in the back during the coalition". Have you been reading the Daily Mail?

I got the impression that TF supported Clegg over his decision to go into coalition and refused to stab him in the back in his speech.

Was it only 40 minutes?? Seemed much longer than that. Nick Clegg was pilloried for going into the coallition and yet as we see now he put a brake on some of the extreme Tory ideas. No, luckygirl, that's my point, he was a real stirrer in the last parliament re Clegg, then like Brutus with Julius Ceasear, he covered up the hatchet job with a smarmy eulogy to the last leader.

Sorry varian ..... if you read the Mail you will see that they were falling over themselves to bull up TF. So I wasn't influenced by that rag. But I did agree with Matthew Parrish after listening to the whole (yep, the whole) speech . . Time will tell

I do read the Mail - once a year when I take my car to be serviced and have to wait for it to be ready. It's appalling. I haven't seen it recently but would be astonished if they ever had anything nice to say about Tim Farron or the Libdems.

I used to read the Times every day for many years and I found Matthew Parish quite amusing but I would not look to an ex-Tory MP for an impartial view of politics.

Most of the press is extremely biased. Probably the Independant or the "I" are the best of a bad lot.