To be a Lib Dem who doesn’t agree with the new politics is to fundamentally have misunderstood what being a Lib Dem means. Central to our manifesto in every year of our existence has been our commitment for fair votes (proportional representation). If you believe in PR, then by definition, you believe that the old two party seesaw was bad. By definition, you accept that the result of a fairer voting system would be a greater chance of coalition government. Nick Clegg made it abundantly clear during the campaign that he was willing to work with other parties in the event of a balanced parliament. Furthermore, he said several times that the party which got the most votes would have the greatest moral authority to try to form a government.

No-one has been betrayed. If you voted Lib Dem, you can be assured that our negotiating team ensured that a fair proportion of Lib Dem policies made it into the coalition agreement. In fact, the Conservatives have been more accommodating than most of us could have imagined they would. For what it’s worth, I would far rather have a Tory government moderated by the Liberal Democrats, than one which was unfettered. And deep down surely most Labour supporters can see that too?

I still dream of a fully proportional parliament for this country. That would be a parliament where coalitions would be a regular feature. Proponents of first past the post will be hoping this coalition fails, so that they can say “we told you so”.

For the sake of the future of our democracy, we must make sure that it succeeds.

What was striking (and heartwarming) was the level to which these young people had thought about the issues in this election. Their questions were relevant and penetrating and gave us all on the panels a tough test.

There was a common theme at both schools where students were worried about the cost of further education. I know that my party is right to want to phase out university tuition fees. It cannot be right to saddle young people with £20,000 worth of debt before they even start to earn a living. It is well established that graduates will go on to earn more in their lifetime than the rest of us. This also means that they will pay more income tax and be less likely to become dependent on the state in the future. Investing in education is quite simply good value.

Young people also asked us about the how we can repay the massive amount of debt that the nation is now in, since we bailed out the banks. Let’s face it, the bank bailout has cost us an eyewatering amount of money. Young people leaving school this year are facing tough times ahead, of that there can be no doubt. There will have to be cuts, and I think all of the main parties recognise that. There are two challenges: what do we cut, and when. When is actually crucial. During the recession of the 1980s, the Tories under Margaret Thatcher cut too much, too soon. The result was spiralling unemployment, and a recession that was worse and went on for longer. The key is to monitor the heartbeat of the economy very closely and I know who I would trust to do that, our very own Vince Cable. On the subject of what we can cut, Vince has already identified a number of areas including Child Trust funds, ID cards and the replacement for Trident.

Young people also asked about the Cookham guest house incident, where a gay couple were turned away by the owners. Of course, I told them in no uncertain terms that I do not accept that turning them away was in any way a “Christian” act. I find it distinctly unChristian to make judgments about others in that way. I note with interest the reaction of Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling, who appears not to fully support anti-discrimination law in this area.

Many young people stayed to talk to me after both events, and I found it very invigorating. They have views on all of these issues and more, and they have yet to become infected with the cynicism that infects us when we get older. I sincerely hope that those who are 18 by polling day exercise their newly granted right to have a say.

Remembrance Sunday – and in particular, the two minutes of silence – is an opportunity for reflection. I am by nature a seeker of peace. I find the idea of young men and women facing death and danger to do our bidding almost too sad for words. I am not a classical pacifist, but I do believe it is incumbent on us to exhaust every peaceful and diplomatic means before resorting to armed conflict.

Today I reflected on the fact that I live in a democratic country. I enjoy the freedom to speak my mind, and participate in the democratic process. I owe that freedom to people who risked their lives and in too many cases, paid the ultimate price. We must always remember that in the two biggest armed conflicts the world has ever seen, we fought to protect our free and democratic way of life in the face of tyranny. We must never forget.

Sadly, today we still have service men and women risking their lives daily. Whilst we debate the rights and wrongs of present conflicts, we must remember that our volunteer armed forces never question their duty. I hope and pray that our politicians do everything possible to safeguard our men and women, by ensuring they are well equipped, and by seeking to bring them home as soon as they possibly can.

Apparently one opinion poll says over 40% of the electorate want him to stay. Maybe, but they will be the supporters of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who know that the longer he stays. the more seats Labour will lose.

At the current rate of decline, Labour could easily be facing another twenty years in the wilderness.

I once worked at a building which overlooked a humped back bridge. One day, the traffic lights beyond the bridge failed causing a tailback of traffic towards the bridge. From my vantage point, I could see traffic approaching the bridge too fast. All day long there were squeals of tyres and the occasional crunch as accident after accident occurred (thankfully none of them serious – but all of them avoidable). Watching Labour destroy itself wilfully is the same experience, You can see what they are doing – but they are going to do it all the same.

It won’t be the same without them.

In true blue Bucks (the only council in the land which has been continuously Tory for 120 years), we made a net loss of one seat. Disappointing, but probably not that surprising. What that doesn’t tell you is that we gave them a hard fight – and had them looking very worried at the count. We also triumphed in our target division where our two Labour defectors retook their seats handsomely under the Lib Dem flag.

The wider picture is that our share of the vote nationally was 28%. That we made a small net loss of councillors says more about the unfairness of our electoral system than it does about our level of support.

An interesting exercise is to plug the vote shares into an electoral prediction tool, like the one at http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/. If you input 38% Tory, 28% Lib Dem and 23% Labour, you could be forgiven for expecting to see the Lib Dems forming Her Majesty’s Opposition! Those of us who know better will groan when they see that that still delivers twice as many Labour MPs as Lib Dems.

Still, if I were the PPC in any Labour held seat, I’d be quietly rubbing my hands now in anticipation of a very interesting battle. If I were PPC in a Labour/Lib Dem marginal I’d be chatting to my employer about possibly not being around in twelve months time!

We have much to be optimistic about, but there’s also real danger too. Many of our finest MPs will be defending themselves against a Tory onslaught. We must not allow them to be swept away. The good news here is that there is evidence that many are not yet convinced by Cameron’s Tories. Turnout was low, and the results yesterday were partly a result of voters voting ‘anyone but Labour’.

The Labour vote is blowing away in the wind, but if want to pick up those votes, we have to earn them. We cannot sit back now, we have less than twelve months (maybe much less) to show people why we deserve their support!

We went into this in third place. At the last full Council elections two years ago, we only fielded paper candidates in Totteridge. This two member ward elected one Tory and one Labour – but the Labour councillor (who was the one who had tragically died very suddenly) was popular and hard working. In other words, the Tories might have expected to take both seats had it not been for the personal vote of the Labour man. The Conservatives really should have expected to win this by election with a half decent campaign.

The Tories helped us out however, by selecting an untried candidate with no track record. They had also recently decided to close our local lido. This pool closure was something we had already campaigned against, and achieved a lot of public support. So we had an issue, and we decided to fight hard on it.

We worked hard. We canvassed every day. We had a lot of outside help from other parties (for which I thank you all). We had a good agent who orchestrated a classic Lib Dem by election campaign. We put out lots of well written literature. By the end of the campaign we had canvassed the ward three times and a had very good idea that it was winnable. On polling day, we delivered leaflets from 5am and didn’t stop knocking up until 9.45pm! We did everything we possibly, humanly could have done.

At the count, people kept taking me to one side and telling me we were ahead. By then, I was somewhat knackered and running on adrenalin only. When the result was announced, we had won by a country mile with over 50% of the vote. It was beyond our wildest dreams – but well worth every ache and pain.

Thank you to everyone who helped. This was a fantastic team effort, and everyone who played their part should feel proud of it!

• New shoes £50
• New toners for printer £150
• The looks on the faces of the Tories when the realised they had blown it – Priceless!

They recently decided to reverse an earlier decision and squash moves to make High Wycombe a Fairtrade Town citing ‘cost’. As far as I’m aware, they are the only council to have done this. But it get’s better. At the recent budget setting, they decided to hike our Council Tax by an above average 3.2% – and at the same time announce a raft of service cuts.

One of the cutbacks is the closure of our unique open air swimming pool set in famous park land called ‘The Rye’. We organised a petition which was signed by well over 2,000 people, but the Tories just said we were ‘pandering to public opinion’. They also cut funding for a lot of other important services too.

Our outstanding leader of the opposition, a Lib Dem councillor called Brian Pollock, came up amendments to the budget which would have saved the pool – and prevented other service cuts – while keeping the Council Tax increase below 3%. The Tories voted it down, so we now have the bizarre situation where the Conservatives voted for a higher council tax increase!

I’ve agreed to be the candidate for the by election. Possibly very risky – but it will certainly be interesting. Those who enjoy a good campaign will be made very welcome in Wycombe between now and April 23rd!

For the first time I can remember, ALL London buses had to be taken off the road. The ‘quantity’ of snow was around 6 inches. A significant snowfall, yes – but compared to many cities it was a source of much amusement that London should be brought to a standstill so easily.

Boris Johnson’s response smacked of complacency. We should have done much better.

It is definitely true to say that there is an underclass of people in Britain whom we have failed to get back to work. It is also, sadly, the case that the ranks of unemployed are going to be swollen in coming months because of the fallout from the recession. What is masked when you just look at the headline numbers is that the new additions to the list will, in many cases, be the first to find work again. The residual long term unemployed will still be just that. When employers have vacancies to fill, recently redundant workers are the most attractive prospect. One analogy I have heard is that candidates are like flowers in a flower shop – the freshest get chosen while the wilted are left to wilt further.

There are many who believe that unemployment is something we just have to accept – there isn’t enough work to go around. I actually don’t believe that. Unemployment is a vicous circle. It harms our economy. More unemployed means more of our taxes used in paying benefits – and the unemployed are never going to boost our economy by spending more on goods and services. The good news is that the opposite is also true: employed people have more disposable income, and demand more goods and services. This in turn creates jobs. More people in work means more tax collected and less of that spent on benefits – leaving governments more to invest.

So we must not ever reach the stage where we feel we should tolerate residual long term unemployment. Our government is currently going into billions of debt to try to prop up our economy. They would do well to invest that money into getting the long term unemployed back into work. I believe that everyone who has been unemployed for more than six months should be receiving sufficient attention to address why they are in that situation. There are 600,000 vacancies in our economy today. Long term unemployed people are not getting those jobs either because they need support and help – or because they don’t want them. We need serious strategies to tackle both of those scenarios.

Examples where we might need to support candidates include: help with CVs and interview techniques, provision of childcare and provision of education and training. The latter could be basic numeracy or literacy or a practical skill like plumbing. Anything that is going to make someone more employable.

The second category is more difficult – but we cannot shy away from this: there are people out there who don’t want to work. I know – I have met such people. Family A is a couple with two children who live in a 3 bedroomed council house. They have openly told me that they don’t want to work and think I am a fool because I do. Actually, they do both work – on a casual, cash in hand basis. It pays for their holidays and other little luxuries. They have Cable TV and they recently bought a caravan (I kid you not). The stark fact is that we cannot afford to allow families to work the system like that. We have to make some brave political choices if we are going to force the ‘won’t works’ to face up to their responsibilities.

Long term unemployment is a blight on our generally quite wealthy society. But we should be looking to tackle it – in good times as well as hard times.

The truly unprecedented scale of the banking crisis has been breathtaking. At the centre of it all, I look at my bank (and others) and wonder who is to blame for it all. I gather the Tories are planning, in good time, to heap all of this at Gordon Brown’s door.

But it ain’t that simple…

Deregulation and liberalisation of banking has been going on since the Thatcher years. Dismantling a raft of restrictions on banks and building societies seemed like a great idea. But how many demutualised building societies are still going strong today? There are some in our party that like to believe that economies and markets can almost always be left to their own devices. What has transpired has proved otherwise.

The big problem with fractional reserve banking is that the more risk you take – the more you stand to make. Unless governments set boundaries, there is always a danger that the bubble will burst again. We are all going to need to take a long hard look at how banking can be regulated in the future. Liberals will have to strike the right balance between competitive freedom and the recognition that banks aren’t always as prudent as is necessary for a healthy, stable economy.

Next time I go overdrawn, and get charged by my bank for not being ’sufficiently careful’ with my finances – can I expect a more sympathetic hearing?