One of the nice things about coalition is the way it is forcing members of two very different parties to interact with each other in a civilised and constructive manner. For years, Liberals have criticised the more reactionary and moralising wing of the Conservative party, whilst Conservatives have mocked the Liberal Democrat party’s size, its equivocating stance on everything and, let’s be honest, its beards. Both used the ‘lunatic fringes’ to stereotype the more centre-ground members.

Now that the two of them are having to come together and work out their differences, the relationship between activists is having to change. Conservatives must learn to respect the party which called the Iraq war the right way, and has long been a champion of the ideals of freedom and liberty. Liberals are having to take a fresh look at the Conservative Party and consider that it has changed under David Cameron and can’t really be called ‘The Nasty Party’ any more (a phrase, incidentally, first used by our new Home Secretary Theresa May as she campaigned within the party for modernisation and a liberal stance on equalities).

This shift in attitudes and willingness to drop prejudices was demonstrated rather brilliantly by Lynne Featherstone’s account of speaking at the Liberal Democrat Special Conference on Sunday.

One of the amendments to the motion for coalition was to reaffirm our commitment to the Lesbian, Gay, B and Trans communities – so obviously – I put a card in and spoke to that. I made it clear – to the delight of the assembled ranks – that there would be no roll back of equalities on my watch.

What was interesting though, is that I read out four manifesto commitments:

- Change the rules for gay people fleeing persecution to be granted asylum

- fight for unequivocal support for gay rights around the world, and use international groups like the Commonwealth to put pressure on countries to tackle persecution of LGB and T people

- change the law to remove the requirement to disclose historical convictions for consensual gay sex

- tackle homophobic bullying including a new category of exclusion data specifically for homophobic abuse

The shocking thing about the above four manifesto pledges above – is that they come from the Conservative manifesto – not ours!

The thing is, those manifesto commitments are not all that shocking to those who have followed the Conservative Party’s modernisation process and already been willing to give David Cameron the benefit of the doubt. Until now, many Liberals have felt unable to use the words ‘modern’ and ‘Conservative’ in a sentence together without air-quotes.

In many ways, this really proves how horrifically unsuccessful the ‘decontamination’ strategy has been. It turns out, it really doesn’t matter how much you change your party or your policies if your reputation has sunk so low that no one will believe you anyway. The only way to convince anyone of anything is to forcibly thrust the fact that you’ve changed in their face – for the Liberals that moment may have been when Nick Clegg appeared alongside the other leaders in the television debates and showed that he runs ‘a proper party’ after all. For the Conservatives it’s finally coming with their decision to enter into a coalition with a truly liberal party.

To an outside observer, of course, all of this is like watching… Well, every rom-com ever, in which the two star-crossed individuals, though on the surface absolutely hating each other, are forced to go on a journey. A journey on which they will learn the true value of friendship – and learn to appreciate that it’s their differences which make them unique and special.  At the end of the film, of course, true love and a happily ever after beckons.

Well, perhaps it won’t quite be like that. Which is good, because I don’t really want to spend the next five years throwing up.