Off to Liberal Democrat conference today! What do I expect – other than being very busy! Well – outside of the media terming us ‘economic’ or ‘social liberals’ – their favourite sport will be will Kennedy come back and will Ming be merciless, but what I hope is that we will debate and decide policies on a whole range of issues which really matter. And the Lib Dem conference debates are still real – speeches sway votes, decisions made are followed and outcomes aren’t fixed in advance.

The one that will hit the news is the tax debate. It will be termed as to whether we ‘lose’ our old plans for a 50p on higher taxes debate. As a long time fan of the 50p rate I have followed the plans pretty carefully that propose scrapping them. (There’s been a lively debate at the new LibDemVoice website which gives a good flavour of some of the issues).

First let it be said – that the new proposals and the old ones are both redistributive, fairer etc etc. But the new proposal lifts swathes of people out of tax altogether, is far more redistributive and begins the real shift from taxing good things (like work) to taxing bad things (like pollution).

We lose the totemic 50p higher rate – but we gain what I really want – which is a fairer system that without raising taxes redistributes the tax burden better and tackles climate change.

So I am intending to vote for the policy and against the amendment that proposes retention of another similar version of our 50p. Unless the debate changes my views: after all, I am a sentient human being and there would be no point in having the debate if one could not be persuaded by arguments as yet unthought of. I know – shock horror. Not rigid. Not whipped and capable of thinking for myself.

PS I am being one of the “guinea pigs” for a set of video diaries during conference, along with Ming Campbell and Conference Committee Chair, Duncan Brack. Will be interesting to see how this works – so watch this space!