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It is widely accepted that most Liberal Democrats feel more of an affinity to Labour than the Conservatives.

It is also the case that quite a few Liberal Democrats fear their party will now eventually merge or be swallowed up by the Conservatives.

So will the dream of Liberal progressives ever be realised or has going into coalition with the Tories killed off for good any chance of Labour and the Liberal Democrats governing together?

The Centre Forum and Fabian Society fringe event was packed. All the seats were taken 15 minutes before the meeting began. So many people were standing at the back and stewards were posted on the door to stop anyone else coming in.

"Is the Lib-Lab coalition gone forever?" was the title of the debate and once again it fell to Norman Lamb - one of the most passionate advocates of the coalition - to explain his leader's thinking.

"Let's be clear, this is a coalition of independent parties. It is not a pact and it is not the first stage of a merger. Neither are we an appendage to any other party," he said.

"We are pluralist, we believe in parties working together, it happens all the time in Europe, we've got to get used to it."

He said that at this moment in political history there was "a convergence of views" between the Conservatives and Lib Dems. Both agreed on curbing the power of the state, the wish to empower individuals and communities and the importance of getting the defecit under control fast. So it made sense to work together.

"But once we're through with that we will respect the result of the next election and if there is any potential for a coalition with Labour we would consider it," he added.

But in case his audience was about to go away and begin counting down the days to May 7th 2015 (the likely date of the next election) and the chance of a Lib/Lab coalition, Mr Lamb had some bad news.

If he had his way, Labour would have to pass a series of tests.

They included having to accept the aggressive pace of addressing the deficit, re-thinking the "cavalier attitude" that it had in government to civil liberties and it would have to agree to give real power to communities - to let them, rather than Big Government, make local decisions.

Only then, argued Mr Lamb, should a partnership with Labour be considered.

Sharing the platform with him was former Labour minister David Lammy. He spoke movingly about how he could see so many connections between his party and the Lib Dems.

"We have Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams in common," he said. "The big message of the general election was that the British public liked parties working together."

But he too was keen to dampen his audience's expectations. "Was going into coalition a price too much for a party which occupies a progressive position?"

"Is this still the party of progressive values or is it the party of a blue Nick Clegg?"

He said if Labour was looking for a coaltion partner in the future it would want to join with a party which could demonstrate that it had shown influence and independence on issues it believed in.

"At the moment from what I've seen, it's not there" he sadly concluded.

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