Colchester Lib Dem councillor Nick Barlow has written on his own website with his thoughts on the Liberal – Conservative national coalition. His conclusions?
“But what about the Liberal Democrats? The mood I?ve seen in the Party over the last week or so has been interesting. When the deal was first announced there was a lot of panic over the idea that we?d gone into Government with the Tories and a lot of threats of tearing up membership cards. However, as reality set in and people took another look around, a lot of those membership cards were sellotaped back together with the acceptance that this was the least worst option for us, and that now we?d taken it, we should be making it work and taking the opportunity of showing what we can do in Government.
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One of the reasons the Special Conference was such a success and delivered such a thumping majority for the leadership was people realising that their hopes and fears were shared by the vast majority of the party. There were no ?Huzzah! We?re all Tories now!? speeches or people suddenly praising the wonders of Iain Duncan Smith, but an understanding that the party had taken on a very big risk with the potential of a very big reward.
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It?s still too early to tell how successful the Coalition will be ? this Government is still only ten days old, after all, and yet to face any major challenges or crises ? and part of me is braced for another General Election within the next twelve months if it all goes wrong. If it was to fall quickly, then normal political service could be resumed very soon, however, if it does succeed and even make it all the way to 2015, then things could look very different as a slow earthquake rumbles through our political system, changing everything.”