This unnatural coalition is going to fall apart sooner rather than later.

Pendle’s Lib Dem Godfather, Councillor Lord Tony Greaves, is unhappy.

He explains why in a letter to the Guardian today.

"Liberal Democrat voters and activists will judge the coalition's spending plans – cuts and tax rises – according to the criteria set by Liberal Democrat ministers."

"We are promised that the decisions will be "intelligent", not just the same old easy options. We are promised they will not unfairly affect areas such as the north, and that they will help to rebalance the economy away from financial services and back to manufacturing. We are promised they will not have unfair impacts on the poor and other vulnerable groups. We are promised that they will not result in another wasted generation of young people without jobs."

"Judged by these criteria, the most recent cuts are at best a public relations disaster and at worst a failure (Job schemes to go as coalition shelves projects worth £10.5bn, 18 June). What Liberal Democrat voters and activists want to see, clearly set out, is the distinctive Liberal Democrat contribution to the coalition. If our ministers can't do that, what are they doing there?"

Quite so. It is the most sensible thing Greaves has said for years.

Last month, he teased us by revealing that the Conservative team responsible for negotiating the Coalition agreement urged the Lib Dems to veto some “daft policies” in the Conservative Manifesto. (see my blog post: Tell us what is daft, 17 May).

Unfortunately, we still don’t know who was responsible for which bits of the agreement.

It seems to me the Coalition agreement should be colour coded. Blue text and yellow text, as appropriate.

This simple solution can be applied to Green Papers and even White Papers. But that may be pushing things.

To other matters...

Andrew Stephenson’s maiden speech last Thursday reads well. I get a favourable mention, as is the convention, although I find it slightly unnerving reading about myself in the past tense. Stephenson jokes about Sydney Silverman who was MP for the old Nelson and Colne constituency for an amazing 33 years.

Conservative grandee, David Waddington rates a reference. But, curiously, not a word about John Lee, my immediate predecessor, the Conservative MP for Pendle for 13 years, who jumped ship and now sits on the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords.

An oversight, surely?

You are Coalition partners now.