Baker nuked

JUST as we thought that the Liberal Democrates had managed to silence the more offbeat tendency in their up midst, up they popped on the last day of their conference in Brighton with an arrogance of mindblowing proportions.

They proposed a conference motion calling on the Government to delay a vote on the replacement of the Trident nuclear deterrent until after the Lib Dems' spring conference next year!

Just what sort of self-importance is that? How can Government policy be shaped around the agenda of a political party?

Norman Baker, a former environment spokesman, said: "I think it's appalling and irresponsible for the Government to try to force it through with haste when there's not been proper consultation for the three parties. I think we need to argue with the Government that dedesions are not needed for the immediate future."

I think, I think . . . so who really cares what Norman Baker thinks, except perhaps the 24,376 people in Lewes, East Sussex, who elected him as their MP last year.

A plea for sanity was heeded by the conference, which threw out the motion. Lord (Tim) Garden, the party's defence spokesman in the Lords and a former top gun in the RAF and one time Air Marshal Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies, said: "I am a bit dubious that the Government will organise its policy making around the dates of the Liberal Democrat spring conference."

Precisely. How could anyone think otherwise? Expect the Government deliberately to have a Commons vote before the Lib Dems' gathering in spring next year and watch the toys being thrown out of the pram.

And then he had Lady Tonge, who's alleged anti Semitic remarks at a conference fringe have so enraged the party's leadership that Sir Ming Campbell's chief of staff Norman Lamb has summoned her to a meeting to explain herself.

The fringe element of the Lib Dems is alive and well. Northing ever changes.