The fact is, though, that the idea put out by the coalition and repeated by yourself that "The LDs have been principled in putting the national interest before their own interests as a party" is, IMO; a load of old tosh: it's about the personal ambition and desire for political power of the party's senior members. As you say, they could have remained in opposition as the "balance of power", which would have given them far more clout in terms of forcing the Tories to adjust and amend policy, since they would not have been bound TO the Tory party in any formal way. Even if they (or some of them) DID think they were being principled, the reality of the situation is now clear: they are making do with scraps thrown at them by the Tories which amount to next to nothing in the grand scheme of things (eg the pupil premium, which, even so, is NOT extra money at all). The Tories must be laughing behind their backs - it's a Tory government supported by docile Lib Dem support, where the LDs are happy to go along with everything in return for positions of prestige but not much power and the odd bone thrown their way.
That is a very partial way of looking at things, though hardly surprising. The LDs remaining in opposition would have consigned the country to a few months of unstable government living from day to to day and incapable of taking the hard decisions necessary for the long term welfare of this country. At some point within the first year of this Parliament, there would have been a second General Election to try and achieve a stable result - in the meantime, we would have gone to Hell in a handcart as a nation, completely at the mercy of the bond markets, the credit rating agencies and international investors.
The level of hypocrisy (or self-blindness) from you has reached epic proportions MM. Is the easy way out now just to accuse Jonny and me of being partial every time we give a vision or view that is opposed to your own view as a doyen-of-objectivity?
I take your point - if the rainbow coalition of the losers had actually been formed, I would have been outraged of course and waiting for it to collapse. I almost hoped at the time that it would be formed, since it would have been hopeless and would have discredited all parties involved, leading to a Tory majority government after it collapsed.
But that is idle speculation. Back to the substantive issue - surely even you would accept that if the LDs had remained in opposition, we would have had unstable minority rule for a few months, followed by another general election.
As for the Coalition - people cannot have their cake and eat it - if we were to get electoral reform as some wish, it would lead to coalition government of one complexion or another, after every election - that is what electoral reform would give us. If you don't like it, why would you want it? It isn't guaranteed to give a coalition of the left!