Lib Dem conference preview: Bloomberg’s take

Bloomberg today has a pre-Liberal Democrats conference preview, including this:

Party leaders will aim to emphasize how they’ve made their mark on government policy, overcoming a referendum defeat on their long-cherished goal of overhauling the electoral system in May on the same day they suffered local-election losses across Britain. They will look to build on a history of successful grassroots campaigning to reverse a drop in opinion-poll backing to below 10 percent of the electorate.

“The coalition is a work in progress; we’re learning and we’ve become more assertive,” Norman Lamb, adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, told reporters…

“Clegg is likely to play up the idea that he’s being the opposition to the establishment from within government,” Mark Pack, who worked for the party between 2000 and 2009, said in an interview in London. “Within the Liberal Democrats, there’s very little sense that being in coalition is the wrong thing. The debate is all around how it should be conducted.”