The Times’s David Aaronovitch has a piece in today’s newspaper that will put just a bit more wind in the sails of Liberal Democrats heading out for the all-important get out the vote operation.

First, he deals with his local situation in Hampstead and Kilburn in North London:

In other seats I think you should reward bravery and political honesty. We rejected voting reform in 2011 but that shouldn’t force us to cast our own clumsy ballots for candidates purely on the basis of which party they represent. If someone stands out, reward them, whichever party they belong to. Labour’s Stella Creasy in Walthamstow, Naz Shah, also Labour, in Bradford West and the Tories’ Anna Soubry in Broxtowe. I have a candidate in my own constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn, Maajid Nawaz of the Liberal Democrats, who has proved himself far-sighted and courageous. He gets my vote.

But he also backs the Liberal Democrats nationally, believing they will be the best “leavening” in any government that emerges:

Above all, in seats they hold already and where they stand a reasonable chance of holding them, I hope people will vote Liberal Democrat today. In my neighbouring seat of Hornsey, in Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam, in Cheltenham, Brecon and Radnorshire, in Berwick-upon-Tweed and elsewhere I hope that as large a bloc as possible of Lib Dems will emerge, and will be the leavening in any coalition, whether led by Labour or the Conservatives.

I think a Lib Dem presence will temper the Tories on tax and cuts, will temper Labour populism on spending, will put the case for the European Union, argue against any action that will alienate Scottish voters, and will sometimes be the lone voice telling the unpopular truth about immigration. They still carry the banner for constitutional change which needs to come, but in which the public is never interested and which the other two parties will always have an interest in sabotaging. The Lib Dems above all believe in the reality of the new politics, rather than always yearning to put the clock back to 1945 or 1979.

What I remembered when listening to Nick Clegg’s interviews this week, before he got pompous and listy, was that the Lib Dems, of all parties, have a right to be proud of what they have achieved in the past five years. Not ecstatic, but proud. They did act as a counter-force to the Tory right, giving Cameron space to be a better prime minister. They could act as a counter, too, to Blue Labour, or whatever narrow Old Labour manifests itself as under a Miliband premiership. Cable and Balls? It has a ring to it.

You can read the full piece here.