You see the trouble of getting into political bed with the Tories, and with us being by far the smaller party, is that we get tainted with the same drab, grubby brush they use... but we end up taking more of the flack because people do - or at least did - expect better from us.
The decision by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, that Academies can appoint teachers without formal teaching qualification (QTS), was characterized by the Department of Education as no big deal, and that most teachers will continue to have QTS qualification.
There's a cabinet reshuffle looming, one that will be a defining moment in the history of this coalition government. HuffPost UK will be following every development, and indulging in more than a little healthy gossip along the way.
Lots of politicians have 20:20 hindsight. Foresight, however, is generally in shorter supply, which explains why Vince Cable is being acclaimed once again, tipped at the age of 69 both as a potential successor to either the 40-something George Osborne as Chancellor and/or the 40-something Nick Clegg as Lib Dem leader.
The most surprising thing about Dick Lugar, a highly respected 6 term incumbent who last won re-election with over 80% of the vote, losing his primary to a hard-line Conservative earlier this year, was that actually no one really was surprised.
Exploitation and oppression have been with us since the dawn of time, by the strong of the weak, men of women, the rich of the poor. A measure of civilised societies is their effectiveness in mitigating and controlling such unfair and unjust practices.
The dust seems to have settled on the discussion about the House of Lords. For now. Politicians have spent a century discussing how to reform it, and we all still seem none the wiser. All we know is that it needs reform. But what exactly?
Finally it's happened. After two years, the mouse has finally roared. That pesky minority which refuses to acknowledge that they are an irrelevant adjunct to the government, has come out and opposed the Coalition Agreement.
Who are our MPs? The proportion of Parliamentarians coming from manual occupations, for example, has steadily declined.
Let us traverse across time and return to those fateful days in May 2010. Like a spectre haunting the past, we recall the infamous 'rose garden love-in' and the the level of expectations the coalition was building. Health, economic, education, transport, social, political, constitutional and banking reform was all promised; this would be the most radical government ever witnessed in Britain, it would dwarf the statue of the reforming administrations of the 19th Century.
Today's joint appearance by David Cameron and Nick Clegg is the latest attempt to shift the focus away from what divides the two parties (Lords reform and much else) and onto what unites them - in particular the urgent need for action on economic growth. A "mid-term review" is also promised.
The Queen inspires more terror than George Osborne. That is the tempting conclusion to be drawn from comparing the Queen's Speech (volume of advanced leaks: low) with the Budget (volume of advanced leaks: high). After all, Osborne can tax you but the Queen has the Tower of London...
I think the reason is because we worry too much about the Lib Dems and we have left the reform proposals too long in their hands.
In a recent Westminster lecture David Miliband warned that, "for many people, politics is broken" - a sentiment rooted in the mistrust of politicians since the expenses scandal, the privileged backgrounds of many of our leaders and the apparent loss of ideology in British politics.
After the celebrations of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee and now looking forward to the London Olympics the coalition is heading into more turbulent political waters due to the on-going Eurozone crisis.
The policy pronouncements and the language used to make them do not merely demonstrate contempt for nurses or teachers or the unemployed - they demonstrate contempt for almost every voter in the country (including most of the people who supported coalition parties at the last election).