“Who’s going to do the funny bits?”In the foyer, I stress the dignity of the occasion. There is to be no nipping and poking once the lights go down. “An opera without Papageno,” he says, shaking his head in b?rlich bewilderment. “A new opera?” he repeats in outraged Lady Bracknell tones, “why in the world do they need a new opera?”Con’s knowledge of opera starts and ends with The Magic Flute and, having enjoyed that one, he feels no compulsion to seek out another. Con wants to know what it is we get to open.
“It just means it’s a brand new opera,” I explain, but Conor, a conservative in these matters, is unimpressed. To the Royal Opera House, for the London premiere of Clockwork, a new children’s opera based on the Philip Pullman story Clara is full of the importance of “opening night”. They used to be tormented with the dismissive question: What are the Liberal Democrats for? They have some answers now..

Mr Kennedy also has much to prove as a leader since his non-appearance at the Budget and the subsequent gossip about his health and drinking habits.But with its distinctive appeal – the only British party to oppose the war, its self-confident liberalism tinged with a more realistic tougher tone – the Liberal Democrats can make a claim to being necessary and relevant. In some ways it is harder now than in recent decades for a third party to make strides. There is not, for example, the amount of political space in the centre ground that the SDP/Liberal alliance enjoyed in the early 1980s when Michael Foot and Margaret Thatcher led the two main parties. He illustrated this boldly by winning the Romsey by-election from the Conservatives in the last parliament. On asylum he urged tough measures against illegal asylum-seekers, while proclaiming that immigration enriches society.The Liberal Democrats are often accused of indulging in childish fantasy politics, but Mr Kennedy’s values are closer to the realities of modern Britain than those presented in parts of the media. The main issues in that contest were asylum and Europe.This does not mean that the Liberal Democrats are on the verge a significant national breakthrough – third parties are often on the brink of something big, but for many reasons never make the leap.

Rightly Mr Kennedy argued that ID cards and other similar authoritarian measures favoured by David Blunkett would not protect us from terrorists. Under the theme of “tough liberalism” he spoke of a new politics in which supposedly conflicting values could be reconciled. He argued that the Liberal Democrats were tough on crime but not always by sending criminals to prison: “Keeping non-violent offenders out of jail and forcing them to pay back the communities they have abused is tough.”In the face of the terrorist threat, he argued that civil liberties must be protected and the threat addressed by practical measures that make less striking headlines: marshals on the transport system, more robust vetting procedures and stricter regimes at borders. A liberal attitude towards gays is a pre-condition for electoral recovery rather than an end in itself.The fact that Ann Widdecombe appeared on a range of outlets to condemn the summit illustrates the continuing internal tensions within the Conservative Party. To its credit the Government has introduced many significant social reforms and scrapped some of the reactionary legislation introduced by the Conservatives, such as Section 28.