Some of the comments from former Lib Dem MPs have been disappointing to say the least over the last few days.

You would think that a party which, let’s face it, bombed at the General Election and scraped home with just fifty seven MPs, less than they had when the election campaign began, would be ecstatic to be sharing power with the largest party in Westminster.

The public love the coalition, there is a genuine public willingness to give it a go from everyone it would appear other than former Lib Dem MPs and activists.

Take the article in this morning’s Guardian by a Lib Dem who lost his seat, Evan Harris. He argues that the coalition was formed with the Conservatives ‘ because we saw that the arithmetic did not allow a coalition with Labour’ no mention then that the country may have revolted had the Lib Dem's chosen to prop up Gordon Brown, a man the country had strongly rejected at the ballot box. Or that there wasn’t actually a deal on the table with the Labour party which was anything like as generous as the Conservatives were offering. Or that the deal breaker for Nick Clegg, was a promise for voting reform and only David Cameron was amenable to that one.

No, according to Evan Harris, it was just a numbers game. He goes on to state;

The party voted to endorse the coalition agreement, but we did not vote to endorse the implementation of illiberal or unfair government policies that have emerged since.

What policies would those be?  A crack down on tax avoidance as trailed by this morning’s Daily Mail? Votes for prisoners? Trident kicked into the long grass? Education reform? Electoral reform with a vote to be taken in the House on AV with no concession to a threshold turnout or date? Welfare reform?  Softer policies on crime and prisons? Did the Lib Dem's think that if they became part of the coalition Government only Lib Dem policies would be introduced and that all other policies are 'unfair' or 'illiberal'?

It’s easy to see why Evan Harris is a former MP and Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister. I am much happier with the comment made by Nick at conference.

‘This parliament we work together to fix the problems we face and put the country on a better path’

A far cry from the carping of Evan Harris who ends his article with the ominous words;

The majority of the members and activists in the (Lib Dem) party, in rural and urban areas, in the north and the south, are and remain anti-Conservative in their political outlook and philosophy. The party respects and admires Nick but he does not have a blank cheque.

Those of us who were elected are working hard to make the coalition work. None of us like it. We would all have preferred our own party to have won with an outright majority. We have all had to make sacrifices in terms of our own beliefs, however, If the coalition doesn’t last five years, you can be sure of this, it won’t be for the want of trying on behalf of the Conservative party.