By Hannah Goff News Online Politics Staff

Leader Charles Kennedy says: "Nationally across the UK - there's three parties and that's going to be the framework for the next general election.

Mr Kennedy: Three party battle

"If people want Lib Dem - they will get Lib Dem."

The answer is intended to scotch again the age-old question of closer relations with Labour.

The conference in Bournemouth is about showing what the Lib Dems stand for and that their policies are workable, he says.

"We're not going to massage things or spin things, we are going to be absolutely categoric about what we do, how much it would cost and where the finance will come from," he said.

"We are not presenting ourselves in terms of left or right we are presenting ourselves in terms of where we stand on the issues of the day."

Despite much talk of a left-right split within the party - following the publication of the Orange Book of essays by prominent Lib Dem figures - Mr Kennedy insists he goes into the conference with a "united" party behind him.

"I am not picking up anything in my own antennae - anything that suggests any serious problems.

"But I hope there would be a lively debate because it wouldn't be much of a party if there wasn't."

I have lived in two parts of the country recently, and in both of which the Lib Dems have been challenging the incumbent MPs, one Labour one Tory. In the first, your party's leaflets have promised more spending and to be student-friendly, while in the latter the party has tried to out-Tory the Tories. How can you expect your party to be taken seriously if you so unashamedly say completely different (and sometimes contradictory things) to different audiences?

Larry, from Birmingham

Charles Kennedy: "I can't answer his second challenge because I don't know what he means by "out Tory the Tories" - I don't know if in that particular area we were campaigning for the return of the death penalty - I very much doubt it. He would need to be more specific.

You can't skew your messages you have just got to present the national picture Charles Kennedy

"But what I would say to anyone who comes up with that old jibe is just look at the evidence of the last general election. We took a seat like Chesterfield from Labour and we took a seat like Norfolk North from the Conservatives and we did so on the basis of the same national campaign.

"People are not stupid. You can't skew your messages you have just got to present the national picture as the Liberal Democrats see it. If we were giving a great deal of emphasis to the student issue it may well be that he was living in a university town."

The 'Orange Book' talks about breaking up the NHS, portrays members of the Lib Dem as right-wing marketeers. How much influence would these people hold in a Lib Dem government? Is it fair of the Lib Dems to portray themselves as to the left of Labour to those of us disillusioned with Tony Blair?

Anne, from London

Charles Kennedy: "The Orange Book is not any official party publication it has no status whatsoever, and the views expressed in it are the views of the contributors.

"David Laws (Lib Dem Treasury spokesman) says in his own essay that this is not the policy of the party. He has signed up for our health policy like everybody else. Now he thinks, with a view to the future, this is an issue that will need to be returned to - whether you have a private insurance-based system help funding the NHS

"He is perfectly entitled to flag up that, in his opinion, this is something that the party will need to return to. It has been considered and specifically rejected by the health working party who drew up the policy, by the Federal Committee who endorses and moves the policy forward, by the parliamentary party and by myself. And he knows that to be the case.

"People should not give weight to a single view expressed by a single person in a publication that has no formal status whatsoever."

I am a civil servant working in a department which is already under huge pressure due to lack of resources. This is likely to get worse meaning more stress and less security. How do you propose to deal with the civil service and do you agree with both of the other parties that it needs to be slimmed down?

Clara Jane, UK

Charles Kennedy: "We do think there is a lot of scope for slimming down the civil service in government departments, yes.

"That takes one of two forms. Either you get rid of certain functions full stop. There are functions for example in the Department of Trade and Industry that actually do more to interfere with business and industry than they do to assist.

"And there are those which, for example, should we as a country be providing state tax-payers' subsidies to the sale of weaponry to foreign states that are not stable, have poor human rights records and inevitably, as we see all too often, some of that weaponry ends up being used against British troops either in Iraq or in a peacekeeping role elsewhere. So there are specific areas like that where we would cut.

The more that we decentralise aspects of the civil service and get people out of the overcrowded costly South East the better quality of life they have Charles Kennedy

"But in addition to that there is a second strand that a lot of the civil service is over-concentrated in London. That's high cost in terms of personnel, salary, and London weighting, a very high cost in terms of rental and maintenance of property. We are allocating a lot of these functions outside London to other areas of the country, thereby reducing considerably the cost in the overheads of the machinery of central government itself.

"I would hope the more that we decentralise aspects of the civil service and get people out of the overcrowded costly South East the better quality of life they have as individual employees. And secondly the more efficiently they will be able to tackle their task as they won't be stuck in the centre trying to micromanage everything. It will make for a more effective civil service administration."

Please give a direct answer to my question. If you are to be the next prime minister, will you do everything in your power to distance Great Britain from the US, and stand up to America when they go waging illegal wars?

Muad, Bradford

Charles Kennedy: "On the second point yes, but I won't do everything in my power to distance Britain from the US as if that should be a guiding principle of our foreign policy.

"Our disputes are not with the US as a country, our disputes are with a comparatively small group of people who provide the present government. They themselves, as we know, don't speak for the majority of Americans. So I think you have to distinguish between the two.

"But yes of course I think Britain should be playing a more active role at the top table of Europe. It also has historic links with the US but that does not mean that as a candid friend to the US you can't behave as a candid friend. A candid friend is there to tap you on the shoulder and point out where you might do things better or not at all in the case of Iraq."

With the Conservatives never going to get my vote, the choice of my vote is between yourselves and Labour. I desperately want to believe there is a credible alternative both to the hapless Conservatives, and to the current government. Which one single issue would you say should make me, and thousands of others who have not yet decided on their vote, choose your party rather than Labour?

Paul, Leeds

Charles Kennedy: "Scrapping top-up fees and tuition fees for students. Labour ruled top-up fees out in their 2001 general election manifesto and yet have introduced them anyway. But this is about more than trust in the Labour government.

"It is about fairness too. Further Education should be about the ability to learn, not the ability to pay - everyone who is able should have the opportunity, regardless of their family background. I don't want to see students struggling with huge debts or frightened off even going to university in the first place."

Should the Lib Dems be concentrating on promoting themselves as an effective opposition party rather than as a party which can lead the country?

John Wingfield, London

Charles Kennedy: "My approach is always to try to be straight with people, especially about what my party can achieve. During this Parliament, we have been the effective opposition to the government on many issues, from the war in Iraq to top-up fees and Council Tax. This has not only been successful for the Liberal Democrats, but it is what the public expect an opposition to do.

"Our Parliament suffers when the official opposition is not able to mount an effective challenge. But we have also been concentrating on setting out to people our alternative vision for the country - a credible and costed programme for government.

"It is for the voters to decide at a General Election who the government is. I am determined that through our effective approach to opposition, and through our policy platform that people have the chance to vote for a credible alternative to Labour."

Most of your target seats are held by the Conservatives or Labour. I live in a seat where the Lib Dems are challenging the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru. Does your draft manifesto include policies on Wales?

Harry, Wales

Charles Kennedy: "The Liberal Democrats were at the forefront of arguing for devolution, and our approach to policy making reflects that. Of course many of our national policies would bring the same benefits to the people of Wales as to other parts of Britain, like increasing pensions by �25 a week for over 75s.

"On other issues such as providing free personal care for the elderly as we have done in government in Scotland, it would be up to the Welsh Assembly to spend the money.

"But we make sure that at every General Election we produce a separate manifesto from the Welsh Liberal Democrats that specifically addresses the situation in Wales, both through policies we would pursue in Westminster and those we would pursue in the Welsh Assembly - and we publish it in both Welsh and English."

With regards to the Lib Dems' commitment to increased investment in the railways would you foresee the rail network being re-nationalised?

Robert Ball, Slough

Charles Kennedy: "My party does not have a dogmatic or ideological approach to the issue of private or public ownership of the railways. What people ultimately want is a safe, reliable and affordable rail network. Clearly the privatisation of the railways was ill thought out and we have ended up with a botched system.

"But I don't see re-nationalisation as being the answer in the short-term. At this stage it could take money out of the system when you rightly say investment is what is required.

"But that does not mean we should accept the current bureaucratic mess. We clearly need a new Railways Agency, operating in a similar way to the Civil Aviation Authority where economic, environmental and safety regulation come under one body which can also take responsibility for organising the franchising process."

Given you entered Parliament at a very young age, do you think you have enough experience of the real world to understand the concerns of ordinary people?

Charles, Scotland

Charles Kennedy: "It is true that I entered parliament at the age of 23, and have now been representing the people of my constituency for over twenty years. My constituency, Ross, Skye and Inverness West is the biggest in the UK and I deal on a daily basis with a whole range of problems that face my constituents - real problems faced by ordinary people.

"This has given me an insight into the things that people face every day. As the leader of the Liberal Democrats I do a lot of travelling around the country, meeting people and listening.

"Some problems are specifically local, but the many of the same problems crop up again and again - like affordable childcare, or struggling to make ends meet on a state pension.