First party conference of the era of cuts

The first party conference of the era of cuts and the top story is, you guessed it, cuts.

Nick Clegg promises to be “savage” about cuts and drops a heavy hint that the biggest internal cut will have to be the party’s commitment to the abolition of tuition fees.

It is not yet party policy and this is a party that polices its democratic procedures a little more closely than some.

The leadership clearly thinks its sums won’t add up in the new mega-deficit world if it sticks to the commitment. Nick Clegg says in a rally tonight that he’ll make sure that the Liberal Democrats has the most “progressive package for student” of any main party, and given the student vote delivered some of the party’s most eye-catching victories in the 2005 election that’s not surprising.

Senior party figures suggest that we could be talking about policy amounting to a cap on fees and a spraying of bursaries.

Nick Clegg in his Guardian interview also said how daft it is that the super rich get child benefit but his party’s been at pains to point out it is not planning to take an axe to that particular sacred cow, although the government estimate it could reap £1.4b if you removed the benefit from families with a household income of £50,000 or above.