The time that has passed since the General Election gives us some clear blue water to assess the impact of the Lib Dems in the Coalition Government. On the economy, we can now see it was the Liberal Democrats who acted as guarantors of economic confidence and stability. In the last year or so under majority Conservative rule, we have endured a hugely destabilising referendum, almost a complete change of government and the economic outlook is now plagued with the massive uncertainties surrounding Brexit, which will take years not months to resolve.

The Tories’ post-election rush to cut capital gains tax for high earners, while turning the screws on the working poor with cuts to tax credits, demonstrated how the Lib Dems ensured the Coalition Government navigated the choppy waters of recession and beyond with a much greater emphasis on fairness than the true-blue alternative.

The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills was the only department to have two Lib Dem Ministers, and we used that strength wisely to chart a new course as we rebuilt our economy. Instead of returning to business as usual, Vince Cable developed an Industrial Strategy to plan ahead and invest in the research and skills we will need in the future. While his successor Sajid Javid turned his back on that approach, it is telling that the new Prime Minister has explicitly included the words in the new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Through changes to corporate reporting we drove transparency up the business agenda: on company ownership, the gender pay gap, greenhouse gas emissions, business’ impact on human rights and through the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). For the first time ever we introduced binding votes for shareholders on executive pay, we started a debate with investors and directors about promoting long-term decision-making, we boosted support for employee ownership, and we made significant progress on improving corporate governance including by increasing diversity in the boardroom.

Employment law was always a major coalition tug-of-war. I remember as Vince’s aide being shown the report by Tory donor Adrian Beecroft which proposed “fire at will” and reductions in maternity rights. As I read, my annotations grew angrier: “ Where is the EVIDENCE??? ”. Seeing off that nonsense was not straightforward, and later when this was my own Ministerial brief I had to spend valuable time neutering the Chancellor’s bonkers “shares for rights” policy, making sure no one could be forced into taking it up.

Yet we achieved major changes to the workplace for the better, by extending the right to request flexible working, making the business case for promoting workplace wellbeing, commissioning a landmark research report into pregnancy discrimination, massively increasing the enforcement and penalties for breaking minimum wage laws, and introducing shared parental leave.

We tamed the power of supermarkets to bully suppliers by creating the Groceries Code Adjudicator, and we took on unfairness in the pub industry with legislation for a new Pubs Code and Adjudicator. We invested in the Post Office to undertake an ambitious modernisation programme to ensure its sustainable future. We implemented the biggest shake up of consumer rights for a generation and led a crackdown on unscrupulous payday lenders.

Of course Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government did not win every battle – we should remember it was not a Liberal Democrat Government – but our successes on creating fairer workplaces, more competitive markets and better transparency around corporate behaviour will endure.

Reducing the debate on the coalition’s economic legacy solely to who said what and when on austerity misses the point. In fact, there was broad consensus across the parties that restoring confidence in the economy at a time of national financial crisis required spending restraint. The 2010 election spats over the £6billion figure masked the truth that no party dared to set out full details of the pain ahead. The £6billion was dwarfed by the scale of what all parties recommended be delivered over the Parliament - and the Coalition Government actually ended up delivering austerity on a scale pretty much in line with Labour and Lib Dem plans. We did learn and change course during the Parliament to increase capital investment, though as Nick Clegg has publicly admitted, the ability to make more progress on social housing investment was stymied by the Conservatives.

Saying “it was austerity which killed the Lib Dems” ignores the fact that most Lib Dem seats were not lost because of austerity. The majority of the 49 seats lost went to the austerity-championing Tories, with former Lib Dem voters often choosing blue in fear of the Miliband-SNP combination. In the circumstances, the 10 seats that went to the SNP were unlikely to have been saved – after all, being anti-austerity didn’t stop the Scottish Labour wipeout.

Finally, let’s not write any obituaries. The Liberal Democrats are far from dead: one look at our history shows it will take much more than a grim election result to drive liberalism from British politics. Given our significant achievements in government, and the pressing need for liberal values to meet the challenges of a post-Brexit world, that’s just as well.

This article is part of a collection of essays that first appeared in the Journal of Liberal History.