So, the conference season is over and, having been at all three conferences, running more than a dozen fringe events, I have been given a fascinating insight into politics at both the very top and the grass roots.

And at the midpoint of the Parliament, it seemed a good time to take the temperature of localist ambition within the three parties. At the Liberal Democrat Party conference, the mood on the fringe was broadly positive, with activists perhaps a little more content with their party's position in the great political game than they had been in recent years.