It is a truth universally ignored that this is a far better government for the presence of the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives can’t say it, the Liberal Democrats don’t quite believe it, and Labour doesn’t want to. But if there’s one lesson we can take from the Liberal Democrat conference, it’s that it’s time for us to start.

While we might be sceptical of many of the concessions that the Liberal Democrats have won – the pupil premium is an accounting trick while child detention and control orders have been rebranded, not abolished – that has to be balanced against the very real progressive victories that the Liberal Democrats have secured – helping to secure a fairer tax system, preventing a tax break for married couples while single mothers have to pay to chase down non-paying fathers – while in coalition.

But there’s not just a policy case for highlighting the positive effect the Liberal Democrats are having on the Conservative government, there’s a political one too. When we have a week when the focus isn’t on the very real dangers of Andrew Lansley’s NHS bill, but instead on internecine conflict within the Liberal Democrats, that is a win for the Conservatives and a defeat for Labour. While the Liberal Democrats ended up in government when Labour was consigned to opposition, the reality on the ground is that all that going after the Liberal Democrats will allow Labour to do will be to claim to be the only political party in north London. The beneficiaries of a Liberal Democrat wipeout will not be Labour, but the Conservatives.

In contrast, Labour’s path to victory lies in beating the Conservatives in the suburbs and the Midlands, and limiting the extent of the Liberal Democrat wipeout in parts of the country where we don’t have the logistical strength to elect councillors, let alone MPs. On current polling, Liberal Democrat voters express a preference for a Conservative-only government over the current one; if those voters in Bath and Cornwall stay home, the result will be a Conservative government, regardless of whether or not Labour retakes Redcar and Manchester Withington.

Equally, there’s a short-term gain to be had, too. At the moment, Labour is engaged in a full-throated battle to drop the NHS bill, a battle that will ultimately be decided by the votes of Liberal Democrat MPs and peers. It may be that the government would carry even in the face of a reverse in the House of Commons, but the fear for Liberal Democrats is that if they vote down the bill, David Cameron will call an election, and they would face a savage assault from both Labour and Tory alike.

This is why I fundamentally disagree with Luke Akehurst’s line that we can comfortably ‘hammer’ the Liberal Democrats. Until whenever the next election is, our best hope is to moderate and to divert this Conservative government in alliance with the Liberal Democrats. If they think that the ‘forces of hell’ will be unleashed upon them in the event of an election, then there’s no incentive to work with us, not against us. That, surely, has to be Labour’s ultimate nightmare scenario at the next election; because no matter what we say on the economy, if the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives join in a double assault on our economic record, then the task of proving we can be trusted to manage the economy will be very difficult indeed. The only way forward is in showing the Liberal Democrats that they have options other than to march in lockstep with the Conservatives, otherwise we will realign British politics – with us on the losing side.

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Stephen Bush is a member of Progress, works as a copywriter, and writes at adangerousnotion.wordpress.com

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Photo: The Prime Minister’s Office