• [May 08] Sam Macrory writes: IN the frenetic first days of the coalition, as Downing Street released a staggered list of ministerial appointments, one name seemed to be missing. Where was Norman Lamb? An MP for nine years, with a string of high profile posts on his CV . . a ministerial role seemed a certainty for the man who had gone into the general election as the Lib Dem health spokesman. He was, however, nowhere to be seen.

• David Laws* writes: TWO years ago I sat in a meeting of Liberal Democrat parliamentarians who had gathered to approve the coalition agreement. The mood was one of delight, elation even. One senior and more sceptical MP, sitting near me, muttered: "They're celebrating tonight. But there will be a hell of a hangover in the morning."

• May 08] David Heath writes:*: IT was 12 years ago that I sat on my very first House of Commons bill committee, and a pretty important bill it was too. We were considering what was to become the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and I was helping Bob McLennan try to stiffen up what was in danger of becoming, in the hands of the last government, an increasingly flaccid piece of legislation.

• [May 07] Vince Cable* writes: I RECENTLY attended a remarkable meeting of European economic ministers in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. We represented 15 of the 27 European Union countries: the Like Minded Group, committed to rolling back excessive regulation emanating from Brussels and to expanding the Single Market.

• [May 06] Norman Lamb writes: ROYAL Mail and the Post Office are two of our most recognisable and most trusted brands. For hundreds of years the post office has been at the heart of our communities - with a value that goes beyond mere economics to the social and the symbolic . .

Sadly previous governments left them both in a mess . . It is now the Liberal Democrats in Government who are getting Royal Mail and the Post Office back on their feet and, as minister for postal affairs, I am continuing the work started by Ed Davey.

• [May 06] Nick Clegg writes: THE Liberal Democrats took a beating last week. There were some patches of light - in particular swings towards us in areas where we have MPs and are strong on the ground. But last Thursday was still a bad day for our party. It is no good issuing the usual political mantras about being disappointed, and then back to business as usual. We have to look hard at what happened and why.

• [May 07] Trevor Smith* writes: IN the 1950s/60s it was a media cliché that the Liberal Party was consigned to the Celtic Fringe. The latest council election results show the Lib Dems have been consigned by the Celtic Fringe. A virtual wipe out as they were seen as proxy Tories. This outcome was all too predictable once they had joined in the Coalition that inevitably meant a distinctive Lib Dem party identity could not be maintained.

• [May 06] Mike Tuffrey* writes: LET'S start with the facts…. Overall turnout was down to 38%, from 45% last time. Two Liberal Democrat Assembly members elected, compared to three in 2008 and five in 2004. Mayoral vote was 92,000 (4.2% - and deposit lost), compared to 236,752 (9.8%) in 2008. Our Assembly list vote was 150,447 (6.8% - just over the threshold), against 275,272 (11.4%) in 2008. The Greens "pushed the Lib Dems into fourth place": actually their Assembly vote flat-lined at 8.5%, although their Mayoral vote was up a bit, from 3.2% to 4.5%.

• [May 10] Mary Reid writes: THE leaflet below appears to be normal Lib Dem election literature. It was one of three distributed widely overnight on Ma 2-3 for the council by-election in North Richmond ward. Indeed, the layout and photos are exact copies of earlier Lib Dem election leaflets. The bar chart, grumble sheet and contact details all look authentic. The writing style is credible. But a closer inspection reveals something very worrying. The main story is completely false. It states:

• [May 09] James Chapman* writes: DAVID Cameron has complained of a 'growing list of things that I want to do but can't' because of the Liberal Democrats. On the eve of the Queen's Speech, the Prime Minister used an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail to insist he is determined to lead a 'Conservative-only government' after the next election. And he admitted more candidly than ever before where his coalition partners are holding him back . . .

• [May 06]: VINCE Cable has insisted the Liberal Democrats will recover from the battering they took in the local elections . . in an interview on Murnaghan (Sky News), Dr Cable said:

"It was a bad result there's no doubt about that. But our activists, our councillors are tough, resilient people - they've had to be over the years - and I think the way back is this. They recognise the Government has to stay the course, we've got a massive problem sorting out the economy, it's not an easy thing to do and we have to stick with it.

• [May 01] Tom Brake* writes: TODAY the Protection of Freedoms Bill became an Act: a landmark for the campaign to roll back Labour's surveillance state. Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for this piece of legislation, proposing a "Freedom Bill" more than five years ago when Nick Clegg was the party's Home Affairs Spokesman.

• [Apr 30] John Pugh* writes: IT has been a grim month for the Coalition but with the prospect of a reshuffle in sight there is scope for the Coalition to re-discover the heady optimism of the Rose Garden days. The way forward does though involve re-discovering the kind of boldness that we saw then and acting in a way which many might consider counter-intuitive. It differs both from the Churchillian wartime recipe of keeping "buggering on" and the pursuit of Liam Fox's coalition-destroying vision. It should in my view involve two things - making Vince Cable Chancellor and in compensation reducing the Lib Dem ministerial cadre. There are powerful arguments for both steps.

• [Apr 26] Paddy Ashdown* writes: I UNDERSTAND why many voters on the progressive wing of politics are struggling with voting for Ken Livingstone. His campaign has been sad, desperate and divisive. He has just one big idea - a cut in Tube fares. It's a perfectly decent policy at a time when fares have risen for years on end but the problem is he can't do it and he knows it.

• [Apr 27] Jonathan Fryer writes: A WHILE back, the Liberal Democrats established a mentoring scheme to help develop promising potential young politicians, especially from black and minority ethnicities and it was good to see that in action today when the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, came to Primrose Hill in Camden to speak in support of a young man he has been mentoring, Chris Richards, who is both the LibDem GLA candidate for the constituency of Barnet & Camden and on the city-wide list, as well as fighting the marginal Primrose Hill ward seat in a Camden Council by-election.

• [Apr 25] Richard Morris writes: AMONGST all the speculation about who are the Tory MPs that Tim Montgomerie suggests are strongly considering jumping ship and joining UKIP - the most commonly named MPs have been listed by Guido Fawkes and James Mills - it seems to me that the most obvious candidate is being ignored. Zac Goldsmith. And the reason he's being ignored is because most pundits don't live in Ham Common - but if they did, they'd be suggesting Zac too. Because there's a special Ham Common related reason why Zac might be about to leave the Tories.

• [Apr 25] Nick Clegg: Good morning. IT'S a huge privilege to address the IoD's annual conference today. As you may have heard, the first set of GDP figures for this year have just been released. And so, if I may, I would like to start by addressing what is disappointing news. The ONS's preliminary estimate for Q1 GDP has shown a fall of 0.2 %.

• [Apr 25] Paul Tyler and Ros Scott write: THIS week, after 30 interminable meetings and much going round the houses, the Joint Committee on David Cameron and Nick Clegg's Draft House of Lords Reform Bill published its report. Within minutes, a minority group from the Committee, having lost many votes on amendments to the official text, published an "alternative report". It advocates, guess what: more meetings, more discussion, another Commission. You name the delaying tactic, they have thought of it.

• [Apr 23] Danny Alexander: GOOD morning, it's a pleasure to be here at the IFS. When this coalition government came into office, Britain faced some of the most substantial fiscal challenges anywhere in the world. We had the largest forecast budget deficit in the G20 - bigger than many of those European countries whose fiscal challenges are regularly in the news. The gap between what we raised and what we spent was the greatest in our post-war history. It's because of this Government's leadership that we have sheltered the UK economy from the worst of the storm that continues to affect our Eurozone neighbours.

• [Apr 20] Samira Shackle interviews Tim Farron

What made you go into politics?

I joined Shelter after watching a repeat of Cathy Come Home on TV . .

. . • Do you think you will ever be prime minister - and if not, why not?

It's not my lifetime ambition. My ambition is to make a difference and stand up for the people who can't be heard.

• [Apr 25] Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley, Liberal Democrat): LAST week, I met the chief executive of the fourth largest manufacturing group in the UK, Unison Engineering, which has a substantial factory in Burnley. He has been instructed by his US board to increase the turnover of his UK operations so as to take advantage of the Government's industrial strategy. He is concerned about the lack of skills. [ Interruption. ] Can my right hon. Friend assure me that the Government investment in apprenticeships and university technical colleges will increase over the coming years?

• [Apr 23] Baroness Hamwee (Liberal Democrat): I shall say a word about one of the items that has been left out of this list): immigration. I am sorry that the noble Baroness has decided, for reasons that I understand, not to include it in the list. We know that immigration matters will not be within exceptional funding, so that route will not be available. Unaccompanied children arriving here may very well initially claim asylum, but a child who makes an asylum claim that fails and fails again on appeal will fall back on an immigration claim. For instance, a child who comes here at, say, the age of 12 and does not succeed on asylum but gets leave to remain will after three years, at the age of 15, be seeking immigration status in circumstances that will have changed dramatically.

• [Apr 23] Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat): MY Lords, I speak in support of Amendment 168B. I share the view of the noble Lord, Lord Bach, that the Government's concessions are not an adequate substitute for the loss of legal aid.

The Government have acknowledged the fundamental principle that civil liberties are nothing if you cannot enforce them. If you do not have the money or the knowledge to defend your rights then, sadly, these rights become meaningless. That is where the legal aid system is so important, particularly for the many disabled people who depend on welfare benefits in order to survive.

• [Apr 23] Baroness Hamwee (Liberal Democrat): MY Lords, has the Minister been able to visit British Transport Police operations at St Pancras to look at what happens in relation to child trafficking? In a recent debate, he indicated that he would like to do so. My noble friend Lady Doocey pointed out that a number of simple steps could be taken to protect unaccompanied children coming into this country, including checks on the identity of such children and on the people collecting them, and a dedicated space on the train. Has he been able to follow any of those up?

• [Apr 27]: The Guardian writes: VOTING in the London mayoral election but having difficulty choosing a candidate? Mix and match Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem and Green policies to form your own composite mayor - and maybe see who that is closest to on the ballot paper

• Choose your mayor [Guardian]

• [Apr 25] LOCAL Lib Dems have been inundated with support for their campaign against a third runway at Heathrow following recent reports in the national press that George Osborne has persuaded David Cameron to put a third runway "back on the table".

Jane Dodds, Lib Dem candidate in the North Richmond by-election, wrote to local residents on the issue two weeks ago and many hundreds of residents have sent back pledges of support for her campaign. This morning, she and Liberal Democrat Group Leader Stephen Knight presented the petition outside the Treasury in an attempt to show George Osborne the strength of feeling in Richmond on this issue.

• [Apr 25] RICHMOND Lib Dems have accused the Conservative controlled council of attempting to improperly influence the London elections through the publication of taxpayer funded 'newsletters' that refer glowingly to initiatives of the Tory council and Tory Mayor Boris Johnson. The council's glossy 'all-in-one village newsletters' were distributed to households across Richmond upon Thames from Saturday 14 April. During the election 'purdah' period public bodies are meant to avoid publishing anything that is politically contentious. The newsletters are also available on the council website

• [Apr 25] Jane Dodds* writes: THE Clifden Road site is the first site suitable for a secondary school which has become available on the Middlesex side of the river, at an affordable cost to the Council, for a number of years. It is difficult to predict the demand for secondary school places during a time of increasing pupil numbers, and changing transfer patterns. If the Borough were to ignore the effect of removing the linked schools scheme, and a possible new school in North Kingston, the Borough is likely to be short of about 129 places on the Twickenham side of the Borough in 2016, 169 in 2017and 224 in 2018.

• [Apr 19] Hélène Mulholland writes: BRIAN Paddick, a former senior officer at Scotland Yard, has pledged to appoint an independent commissioner for standards to help tackle "endemic" racism within the Metropolitan police if he is elected London mayor in May. [He] . . made the pitch as he battles to persuade Londoners to elect him as the first Liberal Democrat mayor of London by pledging to rebuild trust between the police and the communities they serve. He fears the racism scandal currently engulfing the Met could be the tip of the iceberg, because so many instances of alleged racism go unrecorded . .

• [Apr 9] John Murray Brown writes: VINCE Cable said he "hoped and expected" that manufacturing could almost double its contribution to the economy in the next few years, but acknowledged that skills and the issue of apprenticeships remained the industry's leading concern . . [he] sounded out companies' concerns during a visit to Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre on Thursday, which is playing host to the UK's largest exhibition of machine tool companies.