It has to be said that at a Lib Dem conference it is pretty inevitable that a few outlandish proposals are going to be floated. It sort of adds to the charm of the occasion but does no real damage as the more barking ideas are politely ignored.
Now it is not clear that the likeable Lembit Opik was being entirely serious when he suggested a radical change to the way we police speed limits.
The Montgomeryshire MP - boyfriend of weathergirl Sian Lloyd - argued that good drivers be given an extra 5mph on the speed limit if they have a clean licence for five years.
 Mr Opik is not unknown for some fairly outlandish ideas |
Mr Opik, who last Christmas failed to hit number one with a country and western single, and is well known for his interest in asteroids hitting the earth, mooted his idea to demonstrate that it is possible to think about laws in a radically different way. And he certainly proved himself right.
Authoritarian?
Speaking during a debate focusing on the direction the Lib Dems should take, Mr Opik's view was we should all be set free.
He attacked Tony Blair's "lack of vision" and criticised David Blunkett as the "most authoritarian home secretary in my lifetime".
"Do we trust freedom enough to give it back to individuals?" he asked.
Lib Dem grandee Shirley Williams told a packed audience that the party was "still too fuzzy" in some areas of policy.
She went on to insist that the old polarities of a left and right with people voting according to their class were largely gone.
Euro MP Nick Clegg meanwhile accused the prime minister of being a European-style Christian Democrat who was overly authoritarian.
Ken Clarke
He rejected suggestions by an "unholy alliance of progressive journalists and Tories" that the Lib Dems were to the left of Labour.
He went on to ask how various Lib Dem stances could be deemed left-wing.
How was opposition to the Iraq war left-wing when you had people like former Tory chancellor Ken Clarke opposing it, he demanded to know.
David Laws - MP for Yeovil - told the audience that the party should be about liberty be it personal, social or economic.
There were still too many people in the party with nanny-like tendencies.
Should compulsary animal welfare education at school really be on the agenda for debate at the party's annual conference, he asked.
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