“…once the coalition had formed what we had was.....really quite a conventional majoritarian government......in terms of the operation of the house it really made very little difference.”

After witnessing a polite and decorous parliamentary punch up I ask whether when Liberal Democrats in government end up behaving like government ministers this is inevitable? And if it is, is it such a bad thing?

Or how the Deputy Prime Minister came to Luton to agree with me.

On how the real problem with David Cameron's speech to the Munich terrorism conference was how it demonstrates a worryingly high level of prime ministerial ignorance.

Caron is justifiably furious with the way Lord Oakeshot has been treated by the party and quite rightly reminds the leadership that Liberal Democrat party policy is decided by the voting reps at conference and not George Osborne.

My round up of the state of play for the Lib Dems as we start the new year.

Evan gives a cautious welcome to Nick Clegg's commitments on libel reform.

I go to these things so you don't have to.

Steve Richards in the Independent assesses where Cameron has gone wrong on the economy. Hint: He should have followed Nick Clegg...

"Diversity and tolerance are easy to defend in the good times. The real test for political leaders is whether they're prepared to defend them in bad times too."