Steady...

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... nick-clegg

And that is why they will do nothing else but cut welfare.

Maybe he should have a word with the Deputy PM about changing things...

So the government which he is part of is making a monumental mistake? There's only one honourable thing to do...

All peace and harmony in the coalition then?

He has no teeth whatsoever as Deputy PM, which is why he's sniping at the government from press conferences.

I'm loving his "the public is looking for the liberal centre-ground", like they have more than a snowball's chance in hell of being taken seriously at the next election.

They may not need much of one. They didn't get where they are now by taking many (any?) more votes than usual, the main parties lost the election and they ate some table scraps. To hold a sufficient* number of seats at the next election, they will have to show that coalitions are not just cooperative but eventually fractious - and spin both those things as advantages. This is the case in every country that has a history of coalition governments. After all, the parties are themselves coalitions of often warring factions, Labour and the Tories have shown this over and over again.

As things currently stand, the Tories are getting beaten up pretty badly by their rebellious UKIP offspring, that's costing them seats. Labour presently has little to worry about from Respect, but that could change.

If Labour were to sprout an offshoot equivalent to UKIP, I wonder what its policies would be? Privatize any/all of Mail, Water, power and rail utilities I suppose is a given; a 60p rate on earnings over £XK/pa and increased corporation tax? I think a policy platform that would split quite a few of you guys from Labour is quite plausible, we could probably construct a basic manifesto in an afternoon.

If Blair turns out to be the last of his kind - Cameron and Milliband, I think we can agree are not inheritors of his scope of appeal - then it's possible the share of the vote required to become centrist coalition king-makers may never be that great again. If insurgent parties were to take a big enough bite out of their parents, we could even one day see a Grand Coalition of Labour and the Tories.





* sufficient to get back into another governing coalition is probably too much to ask, sufficient in this context may simply mean enough seats not to collapse into political cannibalism, and thus to make it to the following elections as a single party.

I think Clegg's problem is credibility. In my opinion, the LibDems failed to negotiate a suitably influential position within the coalition, and Tories have ridden roughshod over them; almost dismissively it seems.

Clegg said "I will not be a Kingmaker", but he's done exactly that - his lack of influence over the government won't be filling the electorate with confidence.