Coalition options: Party member views

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Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has been meeting his MPs and peers to discuss a power-sharing offer from the Conservatives.

The Tories won most votes in the UK election but were short of a majority - Gordon Brown remains PM while the Tories see if they can form a government.

Liberal Democrat and Conservative Party members have been getting in touch with the BBC News website with their views on the best way for the parties to move forward.

Here are some of their comments

<a class="bodl" href="/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8669508.stm">Clegg meets Lib Dems over election deal with Tories </a>

INEZ COLLIER, LIB DEM, EPPING, ESSEX

I have been a Lib Dem member for five years and stood in the local elections on Thursday as a potential local councillor in Epping. I joined the Lib Dems because I was disillusioned with Labour and because I agreed with Lib Dem principles. However, I did not join them to become a Conservative or to have torydom thrust upon me. I am absolutely devastated. I am in the strange position of not knowing what party I am in at the moment and it feels very peculiar. If the party does decide to collaborate with the Conservatives, I will leave, and go back to Labour.

I am grateful that I was unsuccessful in standing as a local councillor It would not be in the Lib Dem's best interests to unite with the Conservatives and I am sure this is a view held by many of my fellow party members. I'm watching very closely.

Given what has happened I am grateful that I was unsuccessful in standing as a local councillor as I would not have been able to continue as a Liberal Democrat.

I think Nick Clegg should be talking with Labour. We need another prime minister - someone besides Gordon Brown heading everything up.

DR BARBARA BAKER, LIB DEM, EAST SUSSEX

I hoped Nick Clegg would have been able to do a deal with the Labour Party I have been a Liberal Democrat constituency member for the last six years. I believe a coalition between Conservatives and the Lib-Dems would be very difficult.

But I can understand why Nick Clegg thinks the government would be more stable if the Liberal Democrats aligned themselves with the Conservatives. But Liberals are traditionally left wing.

I am not happy with this situation. They are opposed on so many fronts mainly: attitudes to Europe; tax reform; early reduction of public spending and election reforms.

I hoped Nick Clegg would have been able to do a deal with the Labour Party. A lot of the Tory Party are anti-Europe whereas it seems to me that Clegg is much in favour of the European Union and so are the Labour Party.

ANDY BELL, CONSERVATIVE, HARTLEPOOL

I am a member of the Conservative Party, and stood as a candidate in the local council elections in my hometown of Hartlepool.

My early thoughts are that this will be good for Britain. Party politics, to some extent has to be put aside. We need to get our heads together and get the right things done.

Our politics must be grown up and have the national interest at the heart of any negotiations.

JEAN ANDREWS, CONSERVATIVE, KENT

The numbers do not stack up so well if there were a Lib Lab pact I am a member of the Conservative Party, but pro European and sympathetic towards the Liberal Democrats.

In the present difficult situation facing the country, I would favour a formal coalition of the two parties, which would agree to govern in the national interest.

This is the best way to ensure really stable government for several years, and likely to gain the support of the majority of reasonable people.

The numbers do not stack up so well if there were a Lib Lab pact, and this Labour government has lost the confidence of most people and a continuation of it would be opposed with real fury by many people. It has no mandate to govern.