THE LibDem poster boy emerged from the wings and liberal hearts immediately began to melt.

All those deep concerns about how LibDem economic policy was in fact Tory economic policy seemed to evaporate as lovely Nick appeared, skin scrubbed, tie off, hand in pocket, tickling the soft underbelly of the party faithful.

Only an hour or so before there was a serious challenge to the leadership's economic plan; the charge being that the LibDems in coalition had become an "echo chamber" of those nasty Tories.

As he faced his conference Q&A amid a tangerine backdrop of falling pigeons, Nick told the delegates how the previous economic debate had been "a wonderful demonstration of our democratic values". A thought bubbled up that it might not have been that wonderful if the leadership had lost the vote.

Consequently, the Nick Clegg show had the atmosphere of a quiet valley that had just avoided a thunderous storm. Birds sang and gentle sunlight sparkled as the party leader skipped among the daisies.

Even a mooted spat with Uncle Vince had been avoided and all the happy clappy LibDem brethren appeared to be singing from the same Cleggite hymn sheet.

The white suited shepherd told his flock that it "was not a walk in the park" being in coalition and tough decisions had to be made but, hey, the public was getting used to having two parties sharing power and it was only because of the nice band of liberal brothers and sisters that Britain was emerging from the slough of despond despite the best efforts of those ugly, callous Conservative so and sos.

As the shiny one dealt with question after question with easy aplomb, the Q&A became an exercise in how wonderful the LibDems believed themselves to be and without whom civilisation would simply not survive. The only thing missing was a camp fire, a banjo and communal singing.

Through Nick's polished performance, a woman sat, head down, knitting away. Such a homely place, the conference.

Later, another thunderstorm was even more narrowly avoided - by just four votes - when the leadership collective won a motion to keep the top rate of income tax at 45% and not raise it to 50%. The charmed life of shiny Nick continues.