Overtaking the Conservatives is a realistic target, according one of the Liberal Democrats' up and coming MPs.

Lemit Opik, one of the rising "Kennedy kids" from the 1997 intake, believes that talk of his party overtaking the Conservatives is a very real possibility.

In brief respite from conference fringe meetings and glad-handing the party supporters in the conference halls who clearly have a great deal of affection for the Ulster-Lithuanian, Opik talks up his party's chances. He is bullish about his party's prospects based on the evidence that it now has a significant presence in every level of UK political life.

"You can sum the atmosphere here up in three words; buoyant, ambitious and alert. I've been walking around the conference centre and there are so many MPs, MEPs, MSPs and councillors from across the country. The party is beginning to feel that it is coming of age," he said.

For the man whose campaign successfully got the government to set up a committee to examine the possibility of asteroid attack, the notion of going beyond "effective opposition" to the real thing is not an idea from another galaxy.

"We have the unknown quantity of Iain Duncan Smith but it is feasible that we can overtake the Conservatives. I say feasible rather than realistic because the latter is a percentage word. We can do it if Iain Duncan Smith's Conservative Party doesn't revive the Tory fortunes. That's the only variable that's out of our control; we can do everything else to make it happen," he said.

Opik accepted events in America had made a major impact on the event but it had been the chance for the party to show it had grown up.

"The international crisis is colouring a lot of what's happening at conference but it's a sign of the party's growing self-assuredness that we have been able to push on. It's like a wave on the deck of a ship; it causes a shudder without changing course," he said.