TOUGH ARGUMENTS OF OUR TIME: WHY I STILL THINK NICK'S THE RIGHT LEADER

My thoughts on the thorny issue of the leadership are fairly simple.  I still think Nick's doing okay and should continue to be supported.  Before they come for me, here's why.

Nick should still be leader of the Lib Dems in 2015 and the increasing calls for him to resign just miss the point entirely.  Seriously, if Lembit says something you've got to be reassured if you disagree.  The phrase 'lost the plot' just doesn't do his present state of mind justice.  However, others with greater control of their faculties have said this, so it needs to be considered.

Nick should be supported because he gets it.  The Tories are working with us but it is rather like sharing a pit with a python.  You might help each other to get out but never take your eyes off it.  They will attack us as soon as they think the time is right and it seems to me that Nick recognises this.  He appears to know that this is a long game and he is playing it cool.

Come 2015, those vipers (I know, different snake) will strike and we need to react and hit them back hard.  If we can show that we tamed them for 5 years and did the good stuff like cutting taxes we might just do well.  If.

What could a Tim Farron or Simon Hughes bring to the party beyond further antagonising the Tory right.  Great guys both but not right for the job at the moment.  And any calls for the Blessed Vince to step up to the plate are likely to fall on deaf ears as Vince is clearly unhappy in the coalition and he just doesn't seem to want the leader's job.

All those calling for Nick's head need to answer two simple questions: who would replace him and where would they take us?

I've been on the doorsteps in the past few weeks and I've had the arguments.  The strange thing was that most people were willing to listen. They may not agree but I got a good impression that we can still connect.  We won two seats here and we held and achieved good results in many areas around the south.  That is small comfort for other areas but it shows that our arguments still work.

We should not ditch the pilot before we are sure he's the problem and that there is a replacement pilot eating peanuts in business class.  At the moment I'm not sure there is.

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL

There is an excellent article from Tim Farron in the Grauniad in which he defends our record in government and calls on Lib Dems to have a bit more pride in our achievements. The fact that we are delivering on lowering tax for the lowest paid, putting more money into schools and - something which has been forgotten - 'kicking the decision on Trident into the long grass' is mentioned by Farron. He also mentions the little fact of the disastrous war in Iraq which any Labour politician in government at the time must wear like an albatross around their neck.

The bit that matters most is the attack on Labour's Andy Burnham for his dishonest attacks on the NHS Bill on the basis that he opposes 'NHS privatisation'. Putting aside the fact that the bill is not privatisation, Tim Farron comments on Labour's 2006 NHS Act which, er, introduced private competition and, as Farron points out, led directly to the privatisation of two practices in his constituency. As I've said before, shame on Labour for this attack.

Andrew Grice in the Independent says today that we are still in the game, which is nice given that he has been one of many seeking to dismiss us in the past. He also reports a lovely moment: following an attack on the Lib Dems by rabid Tory Nadine Dorries, someone at LD HQ sent her flowers to thank her for helping differentiate us from them.

If you're in two minds about the Lib Dems or if you have simply decided to follow the headlines and damn us for being in government, can I urge you to pause and reflect on articles like this one. As Tim Farron says, we have achieved more in the last 2 years than we did in the last 60. Your taxes are lower thanks to us; the replacement of an obsolete nuclear weapon with another obsolete nuclear weapon is less likely; proposals for reforms to the NHS to save everyone money and improve care have been decontaminated by us; the poorest schoolchildren have got more funding from government to help them to succeed; the Tories have been reined in by a muscular approach to coalition from the LDs.

And we haven't invaded any Middle Eastern countries for oil.

I will always dislike the Tories but the coalition was and remains the right choice and I respect our MPs for their forbearance in the face of horrible pressure.