Ah, Brighton. Bangles and bohemians, fish and chips, salt and sex. Plus--for a few days only--the Liberal Democrats.

The party high command will already have prepared their media grid, agreed main themes and co-ordinated the key speeches. Expect timed media "hits" on tax, the green agenda, youth jobs and education.

But it is clear that the real story of the conference is the party leadership. For four days and nights the question in the sea air will be: Clegg or no Clegg?

The mutterings have been growing louder for months, certainly since another bruising round of local election results in the spring. A summer poll by the grass-roots Lib Dem Voice website found that only half the party's members want Nick Clegg to lead them into the 2015 election. Lord Oakeshott, the Lib Dem peer who has turned political disloyalty into an art form, seized the moment to suggest a "change of management" for an enterprise that has lost "half its market share".

Vince Cable allowed it to be known that, in the time left over from sending texts to Ed Miliband, he still hankers for the top job. And finally Paddy Ashdown felt the need to fire a warning salvo at the rebels. His big guns are usually reserved for real threats.

So it is no good avoiding it. The question of Clegg's leadership has to be addressed. Indeed, given the party's current position, it would be irresponsible not to do so. It is some comfort that David Cameron is facing similar squalls in his own party: at least now the necessary pain of coalition is being shared.

Cards on the table: I think the party must stick with Clegg, and that Clegg must stick with both liberalism and coalition. Of course, it would be absurd for me to claim a dispassionate objectivity, having served alongside Clegg as his director of strategy for two years.

My case for him as leader, however, does not rest on personal admiration. It is based on a combination of liberal ambition and political calculation.

The question about the leader ship is, at bean, a question about the party's direction. Do the Lib Dems complete the journey of liberalisation that Clegg embarked on, or retreat to their earlier, soft centre-left position? Is Cleggism a temporary detour or a real departure? "Clegg or no Clegg?" is a proxy question for the deeper one: "Liberal or not liberal?" If the party is to be liberal, it has to be Clegg. If not, it should be almost anyone but.

Clegg has always been open about the basis of his politics. He is a liberal, not a social democrat. His party includes people who are basically social democrats, but who care additionally about civil liberties and war. They hated Tony Blair, post the 9/11 attacks, for his recklessness in foreign policy and carelessness with civil liberties, but--if they are honest--find it hard to disagree with Ed Miliband. Clegg is not one of those people. He is as ferocious...