Lib Dem views: Tory coalition in 2015

Vince Cable has branded Conservative politics "ugly". Would Lib Dem members back another coalition with them in the event of a hung Parliament in 2015?

Richard Marbrow, Liverpool

"Completely, totally and utterly. Because what I am first of all is a pluralist and pluralism means you work with whichever party will give you the best outcome for the people who voted for you. And this time that was the Tories. Next time it could be the Tories or Labour. I was as surprised as anyone that the Tories were capable of being pluralist but they were.

"It seems that some of what Cameron said in the election he actually meant. And that was as big a surprise to most people in the Liberal Democrats as it was to most people out there in the country. Whereas Labour, they are so tribal, quite a lot of the time they hate the idea of coalition. In negotiations they might suddenly discover they can stomach it after all."

Andrew Wigley, South-West England

"At this point it feels desperately uncomfortable getting into that place, conceiving that that might be an option but I suppose pragmatically we get back into a situation where there is a hung parliament I suspect most party members will go 'yeah, OK, very uncomfortable, but we did our level best to try and break the excesses of the Tories."

"In my view, Ed Miliband is not conveying himself as someone who can be a trusted partner, on issues like Syria.

"But I think it's going to be a very difficult issue for Nick Clegg, or whoever, next time around."

Trudy Dean, Kent

"I'm to the left of my own party so, historically, I would be more comfortable with a Labour coalition but I do have concerns about where Mr Balls and Mr Miliband are coming from at the moment. I don't believe they are standing up for the working man as the Labour Party used to do.

"But I don't think we should second guess what's going to happen after the next election because we may not be in that situation again.

"If there were not the same financial imperative I would personally favour a rather looser alliance so that, if necessary, we can support whatever our principles are, from whichever party they come from."

Jade Holden, Paisley

"I don't want to enter into the next election considering that a coalition is the only option, and if it is then it's going to depend on which party offers what, and that's the only way we can make the decision.

"If I preferred Labour or Tory I would be in one of those parties, so I don't know. I'm a Lib Dem.

"I don't agree that everything the Tories are doing is right, right now, but we have managed to get a lot of our policies with them so it isn't exactly all bad."

Andy Morgan, Bristol

"We weren't happy about going into the coalition last time. It was a necessity. I voted for going into the coalition because it was the right thing to do. No question about it. But, in an ideal world, we wouldn't be going into coalition with anybody, but under those circumstances it was absolutely necessary.

"What many of us hope is that coalition politics will prevail, actually.

"The current system of either Labour or Tory is no longer working. It no longer functions. I think the coalition is more representative."

Catherine Bearder MEP

"Yes, because that's grown-up politics. Coalition government is the norm worldwide. It's very, very few governments are not coalition governments. The norm worldwide is coalition. It's how people work and it gets results. It's how I work in the European Parliament.

"The sorts of things that the Tories, in their DNA, would do, we are holding them back and putting brakes on them."