Liberal Democrat Conference: Fund-raising: Bargain break in Brighton

THE GLITZY pounds 500 fund-raising dinners are happening elsewhere, and the chances of finding a lobbyists' champagne reception are slim. But there are rewards on offer at this week's Brighton jamboree: recruit a member to the Women Liberal Democrats and you could win a lunch with Paddy!

The One Plus One Membership initiative will not pay the six-figure bill for the conference due to land on the doormat at the party's Cowley Street headquarters, though. And someone has to pay. The party's treasurer says the event pays for itself despite attracting fewer of the hangers- on who frequent the Labour and Conservative annual gatherings.

In conference terms, this is cut-price stuff. The Liberal Democrats have a pounds 500,000 budget for not just one annual conference, but two. Once this week is over, preparations start for a spring weekend gathering in Edinburgh.

But there is still the Brighton conference centre to hire, stewards to pay and photocopiers to lease. There are mailshots to send at between pounds 10,000 and pounds 20,000 a time, and the conference hotel must be booked upfor the week.

The set will be a repeat of last year's, an understated little number in subtle grey and gold. But even just transporting and building it will cost pounds 30,000. The other parties spend up to pounds 200,000 on their stages, and the Lib Dems reckon they could employ two party workers for a year, just for the price of the video screen Labour uses.

Most of the money comes in from firms and pressure groups that rent exhibition space in the conference centre. This year there will be 87 of these paying up to pounds 5,500 each, though many charities and party organisations receive discounts. Even so, they cover more than pounds 200,000 of the total conference bill. Among those who pay the full rate this year will be Manchester Airport, British Nuclear Fuels and the Police Federation.

Another chunk of the cost is covered by ticket sales to delegates or representatives, as they are known. About 2,000 pay a total of pounds 100,000. The party's 46 MPs pay their own way, and a collection on the conference floor raises a few thousand.

A certain amount of flesh-pressing goes on. Foreign ambassadors come to be entertained by frontbenchers, and business people are offered special "away days" for pounds 300 featuring lunch, an afternoon at the conference, drinks and an evening fringe meeting.

The Liberal Democrat treasurer Tim Razzall, who became Lord Razzall last year, said: "There is significantly more interest in us than there was 15 years ago. The days when we could go to Margate or Llandudno are long past."