Conference was different this year from the moment I arrived. For starters, we couldn’t take the road to the hotel because it was blocked off by a police car, and there were masses of police and cars by the multi-storey car park. “That’s being in government,” I said to my wife. It took a little time for her to recognise what I meant .

There was no doubt about the new significance of a Lib Dem conference next morning as a phalanx of police crossed the dock to take up position round the Convention Centre. Getting in oneself was like going through airport security with identity checks and scanners.

Things had changed in the conference hall, too. There was real excitement as one “minister” after another was introduced to us, and equal satisfaction as they reeled off the elements of our election manifesto which are currently being put into place; raising of the income tax threshold, ending child detention, raising the level of tax on capital gains above the basic rate of income tax, removing the DNA of innocent people from the database, the promised introduction of the “pupil premium” for children from less privileged backgrounds, the ending of the ID card scheme.

But there was also unease and uncertainty about the cuts which are to come – not about the need to cut the deficit, but whether it can be achieved with fairness and without hitting the poorest worst.

There was unease about proposed cuts in housing benefit, about welfare to work proposals in a world where jobs are hard to get even for the most easily employable, about the disproportionate effects that cuts may have on regions like ours.

There was unease about how we would maintain our identity as a separate party, and how we would be seen in five years time.

The biggest effect on me, though, came in fringe events and close-up encounters with some of our new high-fliers. I was impressed by the genuine excitement and enthusiasm they felt at being able to put into effect some of the policies and principles they and the party have promoted for so long from the powerless position of opposition. I was struck by the genuine anger at the state of the country they were now seeking to help govern – the “shopping trolley dash” of the last government, and the current state of denial of our previous masters: “Problem? What problem”. I was even impressed as they spoke warmly of a real journey of debate and compromise with members of a political party which neither they nor I would have expected to have been our coalition partners.

The other thing I expect to stick in my mind was listening to excellent debates – feeling the ebb and flow of argument, and knowing that I had both the right and the duty to weigh those arguments before I cast my vote. One thing remains constant in a Lib Dem Conference – members will be driven by their own judgement, not by the leadership’s wishes. In or out of government, the membership is the conscience of the party.

As I drove a young friend back from the conference he told me he was feeling more motivated, more up for it. I felt the same.