Bags packed, banners rolled up, brokker restocked, we have been to Birmingham, we visited

Bournemouth and now it's time for Liverpool. I'm Hannah White and this is Inside Briefing

the podcast from the Institute for Government. So, Ed Davy arrived at the Liberal Democrat Conference at the head of a marching band.

Because of course he did.

But what did we actually learn about where the Liberal Democrats are trying to position themselves

and what they would do if they ever return to government?

We will report back on what we found out.

Next up is a trip to Merseyside for the Labour Party

conference. The sun definitely did not shine last year. I will be taking extra pairs of shoes

this time just as a proportion. So will the mood be any better this time around? And what does

Kirstarmer need to do to lift Labour's spirits? We'll preview a very important couple of days

for the Labour Party.

And finally, we'll look ahead to a day that could define the Stama administration, the budget,

on November the 26th. Rachel Reeves needs some money. So what could she do? And what should

she not do? A brand-new RFG paper has some advice advice and we will talk to its author.

One of whom is Tom Pope, our Deputy Chief Economist, who is fresh from a day trip to the

LibDome conference.

Unfortunately, Tom, that meant you couldn't attend the Glee Club.

Were you very sorry about that?

Maybe next year.

I was happy to leave that joy to my colleagues this year.

And another person joining me today's senior fellow, Jill Rutter, here after a nice time in the South Coast in the sun. I understand that was your first time in Bournemouth for quite a few years, Jill. Yes, I think I last went there when I was about six, which, anyone who knows how old I was quite a long time ago to see Sooty's Magic Show. So I went to Ed's Magic Show rather than Sooty this time round. And I am delighted that we are joined on Inside Briefing for the first time by Tom Webb, who until quite recently worked in number 10 as an advisor to the Prime Minister and is now working for BB partners. Hi Tom, thank you for joining us. Thank you, Hanno. It's great to be here. You are a veteran of Labour conferences, but this was, I think, your first time at the Lib Dems. How different did you find it? Yes, it was my first time for any conference outside of Labor. And I should, I mean, I should start by saying they are just on many different levels, different events. Predominantly just the size and scale of the event of the Lib Dem is much smaller. And, you know, for anyone who's ever been to a Labour conference, the kind of visceral impact on, you know, a number of your senses as you're walking through and leaflets have been thrown in your face, and there's flags waving everywhere. There is a big kind of scale difference there. It is a very different atmosphere because of that. I think the kind of words I was kind of looking for for the Lib Dem Conference, it was a very pleasant event. There was a quiet contentment around. I see a lot of the analysis has talked about kind of how polite it is. I think one thing for me, and this is perhaps before a Davy's speech yesterday, I think the slight flip side of that is it felt rather muted and subdued of course some you know that's only off

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