Nick Clegg's speech at Lib Dem conference: Politics live blog I would hate to think that I've been here since Saturday, braved the rain and had to drink the Brighton centre's appalling coffee without having learnt something of significance about the Liberal Democrats. So here we go - my list of 10 things we've learnt from the Lib Dem conference. Nick Clegg is trying to forge the Liberal Democrats into a new party - but his creation is on electoral life-support and it is not yet clear whether it has a viable future. The Lib Dems used to be a receptacle for the protest vote, buoyed by the hope that electoral reform would eventually give them 100-plus seats in the Commons, but now the protest vote is going elsewhere and, with PR and Lords reform (backdoor PR) off the agenda for years, Clegg is trying to turn the Lib Dems into a mainstream party that can win by first-past-the-post. As Matthew d'Ancona put it in a column recently, he wants "nothing less than to create a third party of government; not an electoral dumping ground for the Undecideds, the Outraged and People Who Still Hate Blair, but a party ready to participate in future coalitions and bring its own distinctive approach to bear on government." Unfortunately, with the polls as they are, this new entity could face virtual electoral wipeout in 2015. The Lib Dems seem more committed to ever to the coalition. This seems strange, given the fact that the decision to go into coalition has led to their collapse in the polls, but the party seems to have realised that it has past the point of no return. It may not know where its journey will end up, but the bridge back to April 2010 is in cinders. The clearest sign of this came when the party endorsed the coalition's key economic strategy, decisively rejecting a call for a Plan B. Clegg also made the point convincingly in his speech to the conference rally on Saturday night. "This is the first time anyone in modern Britain has experienced a national coalition government," he said. We must show them it is a form of government that works well for them. If we don't we will have lost not only the argument for having Liberal Democrats in power but for having a third party at all. In other words, the Lib Dems face an existential threat, and if the coalition fails, the Lib Dems are doomed too. The Lib Dems are seeking to reassert their identity - and the mansion tax, civil liberties and green growth at the heart of it. Although events have run relatively smoothly on the conference floor, the realisation that the Lib Dems will have to fight an election as a party of government for the first time has triggered an intense debate about the party's identity that has overshadowed events on the fringe. The most provocative contribution came from Richard Reeves, Clegg's former director of strategy, whose appeal for undiluted liberalism was seen as an attempt to push the party to the right, but many Lib Dems strongly disagree (see 8.46am) and think the party would be mad to give up on leftish voters who are attracted by the party's social democratic instincts. The Lib Dems have not resolved the right/left argument, but this week has shown members can unite around three themes: taxing the wealthy (the mansion tax has been championed ad nauseam), defending civil liberties (the leadership got trounced on secret courts, in the best debate on the conference) and green growth (which has become a key dividing line with the Tories). Clegg intends to fight the next election. Clegg has always said he intends to fight the next election, but now, for the first time, people like me are starting to believe that he really means it. Partly that's because of his decision to issue his apology, which would not make much sense if he was planning to abandon ship in 2014. And partly because it's because people who know him well seem to be increasingly certain that he is going to stay on. Sometimes it's the gossip that is particularly persuasive. In the past there were suggestions that his wife Miriam wanted Clegg to stand down before 2015, but at the weekend the Financial Times reported that she's opposed to Clegg taking a job in Brussels, because she has decided that the city is too provincial. There will be no imminent leadership challenge. Clegg's personal ratings are dire, but there has been no serious challenge to his leadership (Lembit Opik doesn't count) and for the moment his position is perfectly safe. But it might be different in 2013, and as for 2014 - book your tickets for the conference now. If Clegg has not already suffered an attempt to depose him by then, 2014 should be the moment for a showdown. Vince Cable is the party's undisputed leader-in-waiting. Cable has not done anything disloyal in Brighton, but he used his speech on Monday to advertise his availability, and his credentials as someone who could work with Labour or the Tories, and, with a clutch of polls showing that the party would do better under his leadership, he is now, for the moment, the overwhelming favourite to succeed Clegg. Tim Farron's prospects seem dimmer than they did last year and Chris Huhne - whose absence leaves Lib Dem firepower much weaker than it was - is of course, er, otherwise engaged. Election manifestos are going to look different in the future because they will clearly differentiate between non-negotiable promises and negotiable ones. The Lib Dem tuition fee experience, and Clegg's apology, has focused attention on how the party can avoid this problem in the future. "All parties will need to be more upfront with the British people on what 'tablet of stone' stuff, and the other [promises] that will depend on circumstances," Clegg said yesterday. Coalition government is making government more open. In the past ministers used to row in private and defend their collective decisions in public. When the coalition launched the two parties tried to play down their differences in public, but now Clegg and his colleagues are so open about their differences with their Tory colleagues that, as this week has demonstrated, it has almost stopped being a story. Danny Alexander proposed a motion implicitly attacking his boss, George Osborne, and the media barely batted an eyelid. Conversations that used to take place behind closed doors are now being conducted in public. It's a notable shift in Whitehall culture. The Lib Dems are still overwhelmingly white and male. The party has no ethnic minority MPs and there seem to be very few ethnic minority delegates at the conference. We have not had a speech from a high-profile Lib Dem woman, although Jo Swinson (who is being tipped as a future leader) may fill the gap when she speaks. In diversity terms, this party has a very long way to go. But it's a great party to join if you want to speak at a party conference. This week has confirmed that the Lib Dems are still the only main party in British politics who are genuinely comfortable about letting their members debate politics. Labour and the Tories use their conferences to showcase their leaders and their rising stars. If you want to go to party conference, and get involved in debates and speak repeatedly, I'm afraid you haven't got much option. You'll have to join the Lib Dems.