Of course the Eurosceptics are cock-a-hoop. They should be – if Britain ever leaves the EU in the future, it will probably because of that one petulant moment when we vacated our chair at the top table.

The remaining countries at the table will still make their decisions, and make no mistake we will be affected by what they decide. We just have no input any more.

A sensible position might have been to take part in the negotiations, and then exercise our right to say no when the detail had been thrashed out. Even Thatcher and Major always stayed at the table, always fought Britain’s corner to the last.

This is a cop out and leaves us isolated and exposed. It’s a sop to the Eurosceptic back-benchers and the Eurosceptic press.

If the EU is a juggernaut travelling down the motorway (or autobahn/autostrada/autoroute) we are now riding on the roof. We cannot reach any of the controls and we certainly don’t have the ear of the driver.

And frankly, if we go around enough sharp bends we could easily be flung aside.

The final episode dealt with the climate changes taking place in our polar regions. Attenborough manages to present the facts, alarming as they are, without a hint of the shrill sensationalism the afflicts most films about climate change. The stark reality of the speed of change and loss of ice at both poles comes across all the more powerfully as a result.

Any remaining climate change deniers would do well to watch the last episode when it reruns on Sunday. The photographs of glacier loss even in just the last 30 years, and the explaination of the albedo effect and runaway consequences of ice loss cannot be ignored.

I worry that global warming is taking a back seat in the debate because of the precarious state of the economy. When the remaining ice cover at the North Pole melts within the next few decades, it will make the Eurozone crisis look like a picnic.

The thrust of what he was telling us is that the public have begun to see that:

• The Coalition was the only game in town after the general election result
• That Labour do not have a coherent alternative strategy that doesn’t involve increasing our massive debts still further
• That the alternative to grasping the nettle of our debts would be a Greek tragedy (literally)

Back in May, I encountered outright hostility on the doorstep. In the by election campaign that we have just won, what Tim Farron said was borne out: “people don’t hate us anymore.”

We still have a long way to go, of course. I want people to see that some of the more positive measures that the government is taking are directly from our 2010 Manifesto.

I stumble downstairs and fumble with the coffee machine – and as always launch the BBC News app to see what’s going on.

Therefore I like countless others learned of Steve Jobs’ untimely passing on one of the iconic devices that he was responsible for. It seems fitting.

I am a self confessed technology fan. I have always loved the latest gadget. Apple products polarise opinions, but you cannot deny their importance. The iPhone embodies technology for non-geeks.

Like so many of Jobs’  brain children, it is a high tech product. It’s computing power is way above that on the Apollo spacecraft. But somehow, it is so user friendly that you almost instictively know how to use it. It seemlessy integrates itsself into my life so that I cannot remember what is was like not to have my emails, news, weather, map (which knows where I am), text messages – not to mention my entire record collection in my pocket wherever I go.

Other products can do all this. But Steve’s products are so easy to use that they don’t even come with a manual. Perhaps that is what distinguishes a good gadget from a great one.

In recent years, competitors have been reduced to shameless imitation and playing catchup. the shops are full of  iPhone and iPad lookalikes. Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.

The man may have left us – but his legacy will be all around us for years to come. He had a reputation for being a difficult man to work for. A perfectionist who constantly sent products back to his engineers until he was satisfied. But there is no doubt that his vision for what products could and should be set the standard for others to follow.

The extraordinary talent of Steve Jobs was that he made the connected world more accessible to us all. I think his legacy will be very long.

The wisdom of the coalition looks more settled now. I think that this is because Britain continues to retain it’s high credit rating whilst other nations have seen theirs slide. That means that the cost of our national borrowing is still relatively low. The conundrum now is how we stimulate recovery.

It was interesting to hear Labour MPs admitting ‘past mistakes’ at their conference. It seems to me that they made one huge one. Gordon Brown once famously claimed the end of ‘boom and bust.’ In actual fact, he presided over an almighty boom which was inevitably going to be followed by a bust of matching proportions.

Successive goverments of all hues have always made the same, fundamental economic mistake: they never apply the brakes when the economy is booming. The result is that they then have to apply the squeeze when we are already suffering from recession.

Gordon Brown could have told lenders to limit credit, for example, when experts were warning us about huge levels of personal debt. He could have outlawed 125% mortages – since they were clearly an insane business model which led directly to the collapse of lenders like Northern Rock.

As a Liberal Democrat, I have to hope that the long view is that we have been acting responsibly.

Labour still have many questions to answer, and only kneejerk responses to efforts to mop up the mess.

Of course, every cloud has a silver lining, and we managed to buck the trend by getting three new councillors elected too. In fact we are still the largest opposition party on Wycombe District Council. We achieved this by one councillor, who won by one vote! This certainly goes to prove that every vote counts – a lesson there, I think.

Labour’s gloating must be tempered by their abject failure in Scotland. Surely a referendum on Scottish independence must now seem likely – and Labour will know that a Westminster majority without Scotland would be almost impossible for them.

Unseated Lib Dems must steady their nerve, however. It is quite clear that Labour is little more than a party of protest, at this time. Just as in my local District, nationally Labour has no coherent alternative vision. They are just saying, ‘vote for us because you don’t like the difficult decisions that we left for the government to deal with.’ That simply won’t wash for very long. We at least are doing a responsible job – and by and large we are doing it well under the circumstances.

If there is a lesson, it is that we need to be better at communicating what we have achieved, and continue to achieve. Last week, I met a voter who told me he was voting Labour because of all of the promises we had broken. When I asked him, ‘which ones’ he couldn’t name any! We have certainly implemented many of our manifesto pledges, and this has gone largely unnoticed. It would have been nice to implement all of them, but (a) we didn’t win the election and (b) Labour spent all the money!

So whilst I must accept my defeat with good grace, I certainly don’t feel that Labour deserved the win. But then, that’s politics for you!

I’m starting to believe that the tide is turning again in the AV debate. Earlier this year, it seemed as though ‘Yes’ was slightly ahead – although between the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ there was a great sea of ‘Don’t Know.’ Then the Tory big bucks backed No campaign unleashed its attack dogs. Anyone wondering how the No campaign intended to justify the obviously unfair status quo was left in no doubt: by shouting misleading and downright dishonest propaganda so loudly that the undecided would buy it in sufficient numbers to swing the undecideds into the No camp through fear. But the No campaign is like the emperor’s new clothes – a veneer that is easily chipped away by fact. It’s just that it takes time. Anyone out canvassing at the moment will be aware of two things. 1. Most of non political public don’t really know enough real facts to make an informed decision. They DO know what the No campaign say about it though! 2. Most non political people are pretty fair-minded. They would prefer fairness to unfairness in our electoral system. In my experience, you can swing a lot of people just by explaining what AV really is, and why it is fairer – and importantly why it won’t actually lead to more extremists being elected or cost the taxpayer a fortune. Trouble is, most of us also have other elections to fight and a limited time per doorstep.

But I do feel that the longer the AV campaign goes on, the more people will come over to the Yes side. The frailty of the No camp’s arguments means that the don’t stand up to close scrutiny. How the Tories must have cringed as Baroness Warsi was comprehensively taken apart by Adam Boulton. That clip does more in five minutes than a Yes campaign video ever can. I also believe that the sheer nastiness of the No campaign’s vilification of Nick Clegg is beyond the pale. For Cameron to try to distance himself when his party bankrolls it is outrageous. Whatever anyone might criticise Clegg for, he has been a loyal coalition partner and deserves better. Given a few weeks, I think the public would see through the No campaign. It is treating people like fools.

Saddest of all is the limp and pathetic leadership of Ed Milliband. His party supported AV at the last election, and yet half of his MPs are working for the Tories thinly veiled ‘apolitical’ No campaign. If only Labour could wake up and smell the coffee. A strong Labour leader could get his party to support reform. Milliband is neither strong nor a leader. Labour campaigning in the local elections is so lazy, they appear to expect as of right to pick up hundreds of council seats based entirely on people’s disaffection with the Government. Their local literature is the same in every ward, and totally ignores relevant local issues. Labour is a rudderless ship, drifting – and letting the Tories and the Daily Mail set the agenda.

This is the first time that I’ve been called upon to defend a seat, and therefore been on the receiving end of some of this.

Our rivals in a two member ward are two Tories and two Labour. As you do, I ask supporters if they mind letting me have the rival literature so that I can see if what my opponents are saying about me is fair.

My favourite (if that’s the word) ploy is the one my Tory rivals are using. This is to suggest that the incumbents don’t do enough.

Can you even name you current councillors?

Crows the Tory leaflet…

…and even if you can name them, when did you last see them?

On the face of it, it seems very plausible. But actually, it’s a bit hard to defend yourself, isn’t it?

In my own case, the first question actually sounds a bit silly to most residents I have spoken to. I am Group Leader, and I was the Parliamentary Candidate last year and came a strong second. I’ve been in the local paper so often I get stopped in the street. So yes, they usually can name me and therefore the question sounds facetious.

The second question, the one about how often do you see your councillor is more troubling. Think about it, ‘how often do you see your local councillor?’ It really depends on whether or not you have cause to. It’s a bit like saying ‘how often do you see your plumber?’ Well, not very often, I hope! Clearly, I see some residents quite often and I see other occasionally. But the majority won’t need to see me regularly at all.

Still, if the Tories were to beat us, can I assume that for the next four years they would both patrol around the ward on a regular basis wearing brightly coloured uniforms with ‘councillor’ emblazoned across the back – just to ensure that they were ‘visible’ enough?