I allowed my membership of the Liberal Democrats to lapse a while back but I took that decision without rancour.
My involvement had not been passive I stood for local council and campaigned vigorously in other elections.
I liked the party, still do but I just couldn’t live with the position it had taken on Brexit.
Another principled stand by yours truly, one of many over the years.
So as the General Election came upon us my personal focus was on the need to stop the Conservatives winning.
At the start of the campaign their arrogance and swagger was worse than ever and they are pretty bad at the best of times.
My election activity largely focused around the need to get a hung parliament which would then hopefully lead to some form of PR for future elections.
Like many other carers campaigners I wanted to see the future of adult social care high on the agenda, of course Theresa May did that for us with her dementia tax proposal.
A crucial moment in the campaign which I believe contributed in no small way to her losing her parliamentary majority.
On election night itself I stayed up hoping for Tory losses.
The social media campaign to get young voters registered, Corbyn mania and what I felt was a strong campaign by Tim Farron gave me hope.
In the early part of the night I was worried, Lib Dems seats were being lost from what was already a low base.
Three or four seats nationally looked a real prospect, depressing.
Of course things changed as the night wore on and the overall position improved.
I was particularly pleased to see Vince Cable back in Twickenham, Tom Brake hold Carshalton and see Tim back after an earlier scare.
The Tories had been deprived of their majority and were plunged into crisis.
It wasn’t quite what I had hoped for but it was a relief that the predicted Tory landslide had not happened.
Then fast forward a few weeks to a chance meeting in town with a local Lib Dem activist and friend.
We chat for a long time, have some lunch, during our conversation he tells me that I am a liberal and the task for the Lib Dems is to embrace people like me.
I think he is right about my being a liberal and also that the Liberal Democrats need to reach out to wider sections of society.
Yes more MPs were elected this time but the overall national vote share fell and a lot of deposits lost.
In an election that was polarised between a left wing Labour party and the Conservatives tacking to the right there appeared little room or appetite for a liberal message of moderation.
The only Lib Dem policy that got real coverage was the proposal for a referendum on the outcome of any Brexit negotiations.
Others on the economy, health and education weren’t really heard.
One of the problems I feel is that the Lib Dems are seen rightly or wrongly as predominately a party of those who have had a university education and work in professional jobs.
A middle class party.
In my time as a Lib Dem activist I tried to address the need to make liberalism more relevant to working people through my Blue Collar Liberal initiative.
I had some positive feedback initially but crucially the leaders office were at first ambivalent and then defensive.
Feeling like I was beating my head against the brick wall I gave up.
However I do still feel there is a potential for liberal ideas to become popular amongst large sections of our population here in the UK.
However that can only happen if prominent Lib Dems decide to make that a priority and take the actions necessary to achieve it.
The alternative is a comfort zone that will likely result in more single figure national vote shares and a dozen or so MPs.
* David Warren is a lifetime political activist for progressive causes and a liberal.