For the first time in its history the East Surrey Liberal Democrats' annual dinner had a member of the Government as its guest speaker - Paul Burstow, MP for Sutton and Cheam and Minister of State for care services at the Department of Health.

On Friday 16th July at the Douglas Brunton Centre in Caterham, Mr Burstow told the local party about the challenges and opportunities of being in government and how he and his colleagues were working to put a Liberal Democrat stamp on the programme of the coalition.

Mr Burstow said: "When you are in opposition you concentrate on the differences between the parties. When you are in a coalition with another party, you find you focus on what you have in common and, surprisingly, it's more than you might think.

"The Liberal Democrats in Government are having a real effect on the coalition; you only have to look at Ken Clark's recent speech on prisons to see the influence we are having on our coalition partners."

Mr Burstow also pointed out that there were many difficult decisions that faced the coalition in the coming months and just how serious the problems were with the economy, with £80,000 in interest charges being accrued on government debt every minute.