As Liberal Democrats gathered in Liverpool last week for the party's most significant annual conference in decades, excited delegates jostled with those anxious about coalition government policies.
The mood may have been upbeat, but rebellion among grassroots members was rife, most notably on the issue of free schools and academies.
Following the proposal of a hugely popular motion, conference delegates voted to oppose the government's free schools and academies policy, branding the initiatives "divisive, costly and unfair".
Liberal Youth representative, Michael Atkins, was applauded loudly as he made a speech, warning the coalition not to fund "another social mobility failure".
"Choice is only a good thing if it is available to everyone," he argued. "The real solution is, and always has been, making state schools better for every child. It doesn't need the end of local authority control, it doesn't need private sponsors and it doesn't require competition."
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