Conference blog: he did it, and did it well

Sir Menzies Campbell delivered the speech of his life to rally the troops at the end of the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton today, vowing to "rattle the cage" of both the Tories and Labour and shake them out of their "cosy consensus"

After a week in which the rumblings of discontent over his leadership often drowned out the policy debate, Sir Menzies managed both to lay out a distinctive centre-left philosophy for his party and assert his own authority as leader in a 46-minute speech that earned a lengthy standing ovation.

He repeatedly attacked David Cameron's Conservatives for a lack of either principle of substance and Labour for having squandered the opportunities of a decade in power.

He also used his end-of-conference address to unveil an eyecatching policy initiative: offering Britons the legally-enforceable right to a clean environment. The Liberal Democrat leader said that he wanted the entitlement to "clean water, pure air and unpolluted land" enshrined in a new Bill of Rights.

Although personally popular in his party, Sir Menzies is also commonly criticised for presenting the wrong public face – in an image-obsessed age, he is simply too old. Although he is a former Olympic sprinter, he often looks even older than his 66 years.

Today the Scottish QC said that he was determined to "make age an issue" at the next general election – "because with age comes experience, and with experience comes judgment".

He added: When you are deciding whether to send our young men and women to war, it pays to have that experience and it pays to have that judgement.

"So if military action is proposed against Iran, who should the British people trust to stand up to George Bush? Should they trust the Labour and Conservative MPs who voted for the war in Iraq? Or should they trust the Liberal Democrats who stood – steadfast – against the tragic folly of that decision?"

The speech was notable for its confidence and also, unusually, for the quality of its jokes. Of Mr Cameron, he quipped: "Margaret Thatcher would have to concede he turns if you want him to – the laddie's all for turning." He also dismissed Boris Johnson, putative Tory candidate to be mayor of London, as "the blondest suicide note in history".

Complaints about Sir Ming's leadership grew in volume after the publication on Monday of a Times showing that 67 per cent of party supporters wanted him replaced by a "younger and more charismatic leader".

Those doubts have resurfaced throughout the week even as the party either adopted or discussed a series of policy overhauls, including closing tax loopholes for the wealth, rebalancing public and private sector pensions, setting a 2050 target for a carbon-neutral Britain and introducing a pupil premium for poorer children.

On Wednesday night one of the 'young Turks' seen as a possible leadership replacement, Nick Clegg, the home affairs spokesman, effectively threw his hat into the ring - although he denied that there was any vacancy yet.

He was quickly slapped down by Chris Huhne, the party's equally ambitious environment spokesman and 'handbagged' by Lady Elspeth Campbell, the leader's wife.

Sir Menzies tried to laugh that row off today as well, although his remark that Lady Elspeth was herself a "young Turk" appeared to fall flat.

Overall, however, the speech appeared to have silenced the doubters, among them Geoff Payne, a constituency member from Hackney who said: "I think he's improving with age."

Mr Payne admitted that he had placed Sir Menzies third of three on the ballot to choose a successor to Charles Kennedy last year and had since called for his resignation on the LibDemVoice weblog.

"He exceeded all expectations. I particularly liked the idea of including the environment in a Bill of Rights," Mr Payne added. "Now he's got that speech out of the way, the key thing for me is to get the message out there to the country as a whole."

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