If the Lib Dems are all about fairness, why is everyone pushing in front of me at the bar? (also: debate on children's issues and education)

Another standing-room-only event tonight, this time with debate centred around children and education.

The UK's first Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green opened the event, combating David Cameron's 'broken society' rhetoric. He says the 'traditional family is ancient history' and that quality of parenting is far more important than family structure in outcomes for children. He added that some communities are locked into the cycle of low aspirations, low skills, low wages.

A major theme running throughout tonight's debate is the lack of aspiration in young people from deprived backgrounds. This often is fueled by a knock-on effect that families themselves have no aspirations for their children.

David Collins from the Association of Schools said the national curriculum is a complete disaster, as it does not take account to the fact that children learn best when the subjects are relevant to them. He said that students are not seeing relevance in what they are studying, and that curriculum should relate to the world around them.

David Laws MP also says we don't have a "broken society", just a broken part of society (the bottom 25%, who are 'fragmented and dysfunctional'). He also discussed the importance raising aspiration among young people.

ippr: 20 years of panel lols

Then it was over to the Marriott bar to wrestle our way towards getting served a few pints. Always a joy at conference, especially considering everyone in front of you orders about 30 pints at once, so by the time you actually get back to your colleagues you find everyone flying around with jet packs, and that humans have in fact evolved into two distinct species.