BY CHRIS HUHNE

Today the most democratic party in British politics makes the most momentous decision of its post-war life: will the Liberal Democrat special conference approve the coalition agreement with the Conservatives? The parliamentary party and executive have backed the deal, but we have always been an activists' party, and today's conference in Birmingham is going to be key.

As one of the four Lib Dem negotiators of this deal, I believe that it is essential in the national interest to provide sound and stable government. If we turn away today from taking responsibility, we will be voting for deferred decisions and an early election at a time when the country desperately needs certainty. Any other course of action is fraught with the most serious political and economic danger.

For me, the background to this election and to the negotiations has always been perilous. I spent years of my life in the City advising investors on countries going through sovereign debt crises, and I never want a Governor of the Bank of England or a British Chancellor to have to count the money in and out as the South Koreans did at Christmas 1997 or the Greeks are doing now. The national humiliation is the least part of a crisis that hits the poorest and most vulnerable hardest of all.

Yet we face a prolonged period when we will be relying on the financial markets to lend the government the money to bridge the largest peacetime gap between taxes and spending in our history.

A fiscal problem of this scale is not resolved overnight. Indeed, no fiscal problem of our magnitude has ever been resolved in less than four years, and sometimes much more. If we fail to maintain the momentum of improvement, the markets could lose confidence in progress at any time. The price in higher interest rates could destroy the recovery.

That is why the Lib Dem MPs concluded that there was no point in a half-hearted deal where we would undertake to vote for budgets and confidence motions, but not participate. It would have been seen by the markets as a low-trust arrangement heading for early breakdown, and in turn the parties would have dodged the tough decisions because they expected another election and feared voter retribution. Only a coalition can deliver certainty for the prolonged period we need.

Of the 10 biggest programmes of fiscal austerity since 1970 anywhere in the developed world, seven have been undertaken by coalitions. Indeed, the strongest governments in our own history have been coalitions in pursuit of a clear goal. Sir Winston Churchill's government -- the last to have Liberals in the cabinet -- saw us through the darkest days of our history to ultimate victory in 1945.

To achieve this coalition agreement, of course we have had to compromise just as the Conservatives have done. Both of us have had to give up cherished aims. But I am convinced that we have found important common ground not just on securing a strong green growth package to underpin the recovery and curb the deficit, but also on Liberal Democrat priorities for fair taxes, a fair start for children and a radical reform of our political system to bring trust back into public life.

The Independent