I became an active member of my local Lib Dems last year, when I was asked to run in the District elections. We lost, badly, and one reason was a lack of understanding of the coalition with the Tories, especially as, locally, they are the party we are continually fighting against.
After those elections last year, it became clearer to the Liberal Democrats, nationally, that they had to make their position within the coalition distinct from that of the Tories, and they have been trying to do that since with, I think, some measure of success.
Today, for example, there are not two, but three stories illustrating: how concessions to the Liberal Democrats have changed government policy on private court hearings, how the relationship with the Murdoch press is now being seen to be what Lib Dems always thought it, and how Liberal Democrats can and will stand up for people against ‘the political establishment’.
What is happening, by highlighting these things, is not selfish political repositioning, or an attempt to wriggle away from our coalition partners, but the Liberal Democrats simply doing one of the things we do best – making things clear – ‘telling it as it is’ if you like – and what needs to be made clear is that the coalition is a necessary compromise of principles. Clegg and others are right to shout about issues over which we disagree with the Tories, precisely because we take responsibility not just for the things we can get done in coalition, but also for the things we allow them to do in it, and the things we cannot get done.

Coalition is a moral responsibility of a different order to government by one party, and one that Clegg understands … as I knew, pre the 2010 general election, he would.