For four years now I’ve steered clear of blogs and online forums. If you look at the kind of people who seem to spend their time posting at the bottom of the BBC websites, you’ll perhaps share my sense that those are the places where the freaks hang out.

I only started looking at this site a few days ago, but I haven’t see any of that sort of thing here yet. I’ve always thought that this party is where the calm and sensible debate is had. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that Nick Clegg did well in that style of forum. In this party he has had plenty of chance to practise the skill of rational and sane argument.

When you look at news websites, there seem to be a lot of party political activists commenting on stories incoherently. I have a suspicion that the majority work in Westminster but they hide behind strange internet personae.

As much as one can judge from the written word, their behaviour seems to be a mildly hebephrenic. It is the hysterical ranting associated with classic Hollywood madness. They wouldn’t get away with spouting the kind of nonsense they do in the hairdresser, the pub or in the office – and in the factory where I used to work in the East End they would have been ostracised.

The format of the editorial pieces I’ve been reading at Lib Dem Voice mean that substantive points can be made by people who have thought seriously about the issues involved, and their full effects. This is indicative of the kind of thoughtful people behind Liberal Democrat policy: myself as an engineer, and others in the party as academics, doctors, magistrates, leaders of our communities. We are not a party over-run by lawyers and spin-doctors.

We’ve debated our policies within the party. We still have real actual debates at our conferences with real people putting forwards their concerns, highlighting their interests, knowledge and experience.

Nothing gave me greater pride in my country or my party when I was able to stand up at Liberal Democrat conference and propose our first policy against Control Orders and 42-day detention as the law was passing through the House of Lords. I knew I was sticking up for for long-standing British freedoms and had the wherewithal to speak up for them.

The people in this party stick up for freedom. We put vested interests aside and debate things rationally. We are active listeners and sensible actors.

Whether I’m at work or in the pub, when the debate strays into politics, the Lib Dem argument tends to win. When you debate with a seasoned Liberal Democrat, expect to be challenged.

* Chris Lomax is a Liberal Democrat Member in Bermondsey & Old Southwark.