A week on, the Lib Dems have stepped up and faced the challenge

By Phil Hutty, on Sunday, May 23, 2010

Last Sunday I and around 1,600 Lib Dem delegates made our way to Birmingham to discuss the collation agreement. You may not be surprised to hear that it went on a bit, in fact it was the longest time our party had ever spent on one motion. There were nine amendments load of speeches and then the vote.

I heard later that the reason the press were excluded was that they were concerned not many would turn up (in the end we had more than a normal spring conference). They also worried how the vote would go, that it might be close, after all our delegates are an independent lot.

Well, it wasn’t – out of over 1,600 delegates less than a handfull voted against. Actually I saw only one hand go up, but I might have missed some. Then it was all over, and Nick, sorry the Deputy Prime Minster, came to the podium made a short speech thanking us for our trust, and it was all over.

I know that this agreement has not played well with all the voters. Some have argued that we should have joined Labour. But even Labour now admit that they needed to stop governing, that they had lost and didn’t carry the confidence of the people.

Certainly the negotiations with them hadn’t gone well, refusing to offer anything, and even refusing to support PR (something actually in their manifesto). We could have also not gone into government at all, we could have sat on the opposition benches and wait for the Government to fall apart and call a second election.

This electorally would have been better for us because we would then have two failed governments to campaign against.

But we didn’t do either of those why? Were we so desperate for power?

Well NO it was because we knew that both of those suggestions would harm to the country, and the subsequent instability would ultimately be paid for by you and me.

So for better or worse, we went for the grown-up option. The one that now sees us in government with arch rivals. I’m not sure it will work, and if it doesn’t we will surely get the blame. But I think there are times we you step up and face the challenge. I may not like it, but if it works I am sure it will benefit the country and if you join the Lib Dems that’s what politics is all about, helping people, even if we lose out to the other parties at the next election.