Like Ian Bradley (Letters, 9 February) I am a lifelong Liberal and Liberal Democrat and a former parliamentary candidate who found the Church’s social teaching consistent with and supportive of the party’s philosophy and values.

But I do not share his puzzlement as to why the party is limping along at single figures in the polls when its stances on the EU and a second referendum, coupled with bitterly divided and inept Tory and Labour parties, should have Lib Dem support in the high twenties. The reasons are all too clear. First, prior to the 2010 general election, Nick Clegg led his candidates to sign personal pledges to oppose any increase in tuition fees, pledges which, with a few honourable exceptions, they tore up once in coalition. That betrayal of trust, still remembered by the electorate, made Clegg, like his predecessor Lloyd George, the near-destroyer of his own party.

Second, there was the shameful hounding of Tim Farron out of the party leadership because of his Christian convictions, not only by venomous MPs in other parties, but by leading figures in the Liberal Democrats whose words and actions were in direct contravention of the party’s founding statement of values. Small wonder that there were those who questioned whether it was any longer possible to be a Christian and a Liberal Democrat.