Simon Hughes - conspicuous by his absence?

Not much has been heard from senior Lib Dem left-winger Simon Hughes since his party tied the knot with the Conservatives this week.

Here's how he describes his political position: "all my adult life I have been on the progressive left or centre left of British politics".

So, how will he respond to this Lib-Con deal? Will he go into guerilla opposition mode, hiding in the political forests to lay ambushes for the new centre-right / progressive / liberal coalition?

Apparently not. He's posted a long article on his website explaining the spiritual gymnastics he's put himself through in order to support his party's position.

Obviously he feels he's got a lot of explaining to do - his article runs to 2,412 words.

Key quotes:

It was clear that the Conservatives were still willing to move further and faster in our direction than Labour.

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In many ways not being associated with the Conservatives would have been an easier option, and one more natural given our very different political traditions.

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the result of allowing the conservatives to form a minority government would be quite simply that we would have unqualified and unaltered conservative policies for the whole of the government's term

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The final proposals agreed with the Conservatives went much further than any of us could ever have expected. Each of our four major priority areas were agreed - with one exception. Conservatives would not support an immediate move to a fully fair voting system, but they did support a referendum on moving to the Alternative Vote (where people express their preference for candidates rather than just putting one single cross) which is a step in the right direction.

Sounds like he's going to be loyal to his leader and support the coalition. We've not heard a pip from him - or from anyone else - about his absence from the list of ministers in the new Clegg-Cameron government.

Astonishing, really, that such a senior Lib Dem is going to be on the back benches.

So, is it for life? Not quite:

Our ambition is to be in government on our own and we will fight the next general election to win as many seats from all the other parties as possible.

Watch this space.