David Maddox: Lib Dem conference - finding a speaker

This Scottish Liberal Democrat conference was billed in the run-up by spin doctors and party leaders as the great thinktank on how to get Scotland and the UK out of the recession.
I've just been sitting in their most high profile debate on the issue - An Economic Recovery Package for Scotland.
You might think that given the billing it would have been difficult to get on the stage to speak. But no. It seems though from the introductions of two speakers - election candidate Fred Macintosh, who ticked the wrong box and and ended up having to oppose an amendment he supports, and Edinburgh City Council leader Jenny Dawe - that the chairwoman of the debate Siobhan Mathers was standing at the door trying to persuade delegates to speak.
Sensitive to this Ms Mathers told delegates: "Don't think that I've been standing at the door trying to find speakers" in a classic case of shutting the door after the horse has bolted.