In advance of his first party conference as leader, the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Charles Kennedy, has voiced his ambitions for a Lib-Dem government, Luke Holland reports.
Asserting that his party was not afraid of disagreeing with Labour, he affirmed that "there is no reason whatsoever why this party can't go further up the scale in terms of its political priorities and its political progress . . . That, of course, leads to a place in government itself." Responding to criticisms of his party over its calls for a commission on the legalisation of cannabis he asserted that drugs were an important issue which should be debated openly. He denied that he had ever "experimented" with drugs himself, however. The party's conference opens in Harrogate today.