Jo Swinson is enjoying herself. But how long will it last?

Jo Swinson is quite obviously the only party leader enjoying what’s going on right now. This is, of course, partly because what’s going on for her is that she is regularly welcoming MPs from other parties into the Liberal Democrats. As she said in her speech to the party’s conference this afternoon, ‘I can’t be the only one losing count of our many newly-elected representatives’.

There are plenty of questions about some of those new MPs. Are they really Lib Dems, or are they just seeking refuge in the party because they have nowhere else to go and need funding in order to survive the next general election? Has the party welcomed any old waif and stray, regardless of their views on matters such as gay marriage? But Swinson was trying to answer the biggest question of all about these new recruits: what is she planning to do with all this political momentum?