The Liberal Democrat outlook is not so bleak

Depending on which section of the commentariat you listen to, the Liberal Democrats are either going to be swallowed up, split apart, or simply wiped off the electoral map by this experience in Government.

You’ll struggle to find someone who believes the party might ultimately benefit electorally from being in the coalition.

Yet there was an interesting  insight in my colleague Steve Richard’s column this morning:

“In a curious way the coalition is an assertion of their party’s independence rather than representing a near fatal loss of distinct identity. For so long Labour and others had assumed that the Liberal Democrats would join a centre-left alliance. This did not happen. They will never be taken for granted in the same way again.”

Quite. And this is why Nick Clegg can be said to have played the hand dealt him by the election result with some skill. A deal with a weakened Labour, while superficially more attractive to many Lib Dems, would actually have been extremely bad for the party.

Yes, some people now regret voting for the Lib Dems and say they will not do so again. But if the party had confirmed the popular perception that they were just an unofficial off-shoot of Labour, what reason would  anyone have had to vote for them again?

If our commentariat were not so pickled in two-party thinking they would have given Clegg some credit for recognising this and making the right strategic choice for his party.  But the media plaudits  appear to have been exclusively reserved instead for David Cameron, who we are constantly informed used the election outcome to complete the modernisation of his party.

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• http://twitter.com/Broxted Ciaran Rehill

  It is a win-win situation for the Liberals. If the Tories succeed they will be part of it, if the Tories fail the Liberals can claim that as a minor coalition member it wasn’t their fault. The main thing is to re-establish freedom in the U.K after Blair-Brown.

• AngloGaelic220

  Labour is in deep trouble. Lib Dems just need to keep the faith, concentrate on their core values, and they might get a nice surprise in the next election.

• Richard Ramsay

  In your dreams. Values what values.The only surprise at the next election will be if the Lib Dems representation is in double figures.

• bobigb

  Aye in your dreams perhaps
  Which will result in utter oblivion f
  or the libdems sell your soul gang