"A voice, crying in the wilderness"

Just recently I have felt a little lonely as a Liberal.

The screw up at Harrogate: where it looked that Ming's bias against the Tories was driving him to shackle the Liberal Democrats to the Labour corpse.

The reversion to talking about voting systems rather than why we should be in power.

The opportunist attempt by the cynical David Cameron to claim credit for Liberal Democrat ideas.

All were conspiring to create an air of gloom.

And then, Paddy Ashdown comes to the rescue:

"In a nutshell, liberals believe in individual freedom, accountable government, the dispersion of political power, social justice, the rule of law, the free exchange of opinions and goods, and the protection of the natural environment. What could be more relevant to today's challenges?

Above all else, liberals value individual freedom, because we believe that people are best able to decide for themselves what to do with their lives – no-one else, whether government minister or religious leader, can do it for them. We want to see a government which is run as directly by individuals and communities as possible – decentralised in scale, responsive to the needs and wishes of ordinary people, and one which trusts people to take more responsibility for their own future. What better prescription for today's over-centralised and over-regulated Britain, run by an administration that doesn't listen and doesn't seem to take responsibility when things go wrong?"

Then I notice the strong performance that we are making in local elections.

Then I notice the predictions for the May elections:

Gains in Scotland and possibly Wales and LD set to gain control of several major authorities,

So I feel more reassured.