Lord Razzall

The Liberal Democrat ambition to overtake the Conservatives has been descried as a strategy rather than an ideological ambition by the party's chief strategist.

Senior Lib Dem Lord Razzall has been keen to stress that the party is not setting its sights purely on the Conservative Party. The party would not be offering lower taxes and less state intervention.

"We are never going to appeal to people who believe that," he said.

Setting the Tories in their sights is "purely strategic and tactical" rather than ideological.

"We believe that there are a number of Tory voters out there who either voted Conservative at the last election or have moved to non-voters and to whom our policies of mutualism and public services will appeal," Razzall said.

Privately there has been a reality check on the claim of party chairman Mark Oaten that the Lib Dems can sweep into Downing Street in under a decade.

"The Tory Party has been around for a very long time and simply isn't going to give up without a fight. They are going to fight us and fight dirty," said one member of the Kennedy team.

Insiders say the conference was significant in showing there is a growing maturity amongst members.

"This was the week that the party grew up," said one advisor.

"The pornography debate was a case in point. There was a measured debate but no-one threw their toys out of the pram when it finished. Two years ago, we'd have lost several of the votes. In two years' time the less sane debates won't make the agenda because we're moving on."

But the party admits the final test of whether its strategies have worked will come at the ballot box.

"We will start to do significantly better only when the Tories start doing significantly worse," said Razzall.