lib-dems

Which leads to the second possibility: that the Lib Dems can only splash a few yellow dots on to a deep-blue juggernaut.

Would he delay spending cuts for a year, as the Lib Dems wish, to get a budget through Parliament this summer?

Until the next election, only the Tories and Lib Dems, between them, have a hope of forming a stable government.

In fact, the idea of Mr Clegg as a map re-drawer is part of what makes some Lib Dems sceptical about him.

In opposition the party promised to review the policy but, unlike the Lib Dems, did not commit to abolishing them.

Senior Conservatives who a year ago preferred the Lib Dems to the right of their own tribe now curse them as enemies of reform.

The Lib Dems crave full-blown proportional representation but may decide the best chance of any reform lies with Labour.

The vote had been seen as an indication of the strength of support within the Lib Dems not only for the policy but for the coalition itself.

After not even a year in power, many Lib Dems are weary of building up credibility, and desperate to reassert their identity.

Most Lib Dems favour a graduate tax, under which graduates would pay more tax than those who had not completed a degree.

It's as if Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour formed a government together.

If the next election yields a hung parliament, the Lib Dems may enter government in coalition with either of the big parties.

he is said to be contemplating what the Lib Dems' main demand should be in a fresh bout of coalition negotiations.

The Lib Dems, however, were disposed to wait until economic recovery was more assured.

He's no firebrand, but the rightwing press knows the Lib Dems would introduce proportional representation and a fairer party funding system.

That has opened space for the Lib Dems (who have done well, grabbing control of many urban councils) and the Tories.

The Lib Dems' call to improve recording of those leaving the country would be a good start.

But the FDP, like the Lib Dems in England, which became his adopted country in 1988, was small and weak, and not quite what he wanted.

Replacing the current voting system with a proportional one is a priority for the Lib Dems, along with wider political reforms.

Voters who resent the rich do not think of Lib Dems as "compassionate" , but as Tory stooges.

Mr Clegg has made the Lib Dems more liberal, or at least more realistic, in economic matters.

If he had rejected the Tory coalition offer, how could Lib Dems "ever again have asked the voters to take us seriously? "

Local elections, in contrast, are often fertile ground for the Lib Dems, who long ago perfected the art of pavement politics.

One of the candidates, Ed Miliband, wants Labour to woo Lib Dems by championing civil liberties.

The Lib Dems and the Tories both talk of a clearer, fairer "pupil premium" : extra per-capita cash for schools that take poor children.

For the Tories, for the Lib Dems and for Britain, it's a good deal.

Even some of the Conservative MPs who agree with the Lib Dems on control orders worry about their liberal line on crime.

That's not obviously so: Labour was not wiped out, and many Lib Dems still long for a "progressive alliance" of the left.

But those same Lib Dems underestimate the emotional temptations to which they are giving way.

After losing the state funding given to opposition parties, the Lib Dems are hard-up, and leaving their stately Westminster HQ.

His critics (including many Lib Dems) take fairness to mean exempting the poor from austerity measures as far as possible.

Differentiation also advertises some of the Lib Dems' least popular policies.

A University of Essex study estimates that the Lib Dems would have scooped 32 more seats if AV rules had applied at the general election.

The Lib Dems have not been here before. At previous low points, the party's big problem was irrelevance.

The Lib Dems would support the redrawing of constituency boundaries (and fixed-term parliaments, another longstanding goal).

Finally, grumbling about the Lib Dems is overblown. It is other EU countries that will stop Britain free riding, not the Lib Dems.

Most Tory MPs (and quite a few Labour ones) oppose changing FPTP, but Lib Dems hate it because it punishes smaller parties.

The Lib Dems rightly point out that the Labour-Tory row over when to start cutting is camouflage for the unresolved issue of what to cut.

Some of this is a calculated wooing of left-leaning voters who deserted the Lib Dems in protest at their collaboration with the Tories.

The Lib Dems' attitude to most of these reforms has been acquiescence, or active support.

But the Lib Dems could strike a deal with the smaller of the other two parties, though it might look bad.

Nothing else is as sensitive as health policy, and the Lib Dems have been supportive elsewhere.

Luckily, the assassination of the world's most wanted man coincided with the dismal performance of the Lib Dems in the local elections.

The coalition is committed to keeping the deterrent, albeit with the reluctant support of the Lib Dems.

But many Tories worry that Lib Dems who dislike the coalition might push for an exit once they have secured the prize of AV.

He could be chancellor if the Lib Dems make a pact with another party.

Now that the Lib Dems are a party of government, the wasted-vote argument is weakened.

Under PR, most parliaments would probably be hung, and Lib Dems could dream of playing a pivotal role in endless coalitions.

Recent weeks have provided other glimpses of the Lib Dems' influence on non-economic matters.

The Lib Dems are the principal victims of Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system.

At Birmingham, the mood of calm extended to both grassroots Lib Dems and the sleeker, suits-and-smartphones crowd around Mr Clegg.

But perhaps the Lib Dems' clout on issues such as counter-terrorism should not be so surprising.

Mr Clegg's vision of the Lib Dems as a party of the centre often looked remote.

With the Lib Dems to please, however, it is uncertain whether David Cameron, the prime minister, will ultimately decide to keep the orders.

As with New Labour, the Lib Dems are lead by a "young and dynamic leader" - Mr Nick Clegg.

The Lib Dems' job for most of the time between elections is simply to stay in the game.

Although the Lib Dems may win some concessions, many of Lord Browne's recommendations have a strong chance of becoming reality.

After backing it, the Lib Dems turned against it when unease among voters and clinicians grew earlier this year.

The proliferation of news outlets might, in theory, have helped the Lib Dems increase their exposure.

With their conference approaching, some Lib Dems have muttered sardonically that there is a global conspiracy to do them down.

Angry ex-Lib Dems wanted redder meat: proof that Mr Clegg was stopping wicked Tories from doing wicked things.

The Tories want no change, the Lib Dems are campaigning for a Yes.

Tories hate higher taxes, Lib Dems anything that smacks of xenophobia. Their respective bases cancel each other out.

The Lib Dems may revolt, even though the coalition's original agreement includes the policy.

True, the Lib Dems are with Labour in opposing immediate spending cuts to ease the fiscal deficit.

To survive and prosper, the Lib Dems need to be more strategic, and less keen on cheering themselves.

Nobody denies that the Lib Dems did very badly in northern England and Scotland.

The Lib Dems will have five people in the cabinet, but the great offices of state remain firmly Tory.

Many Lib Dems and others worry that students from poor backgrounds will be deterred by much higher fees.

The Greens may well retain their existing two MEPs, and the Lib Dems struggle to beat UKIP into third place.

The Lib Dems, by contrast, were the first big party to endorse gay marriage, in September.

The nation's new-found love affair with the Lib Dems does not yet make them obvious winners in Brentford and Isleworth.

What Lib Dems really want is a system that would give them seats in proportion to their votes.

The Lib Dems, meanwhile, have gone quiet about their support for the euro.

If the Lib Dems' sway on these issues was foreseeable, so are its political dangers.

By instinct, many Lib Dems are drawn to obstructionism atop the moral high ground.

Like all political parties (and most human beings), the Lib Dems cherish a series of myths about themselves.

In either case a loose parliamentary alliance is more likely than a formal coalition with the Lib Dems.

And the Lib Dems are in danger of losing more than their reputation for probity.

Ask Lib Dems about property and land taxes, and they talk up a storm about "fiscal liberalism" .

In the English local elections, Labour made gains at the expense of both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems are paying a price for throwing in their lot with Mr Cameron.

The Lib Dems' manifesto is clearer about the need for fiscal retrenchment.

Instead, the Lib Dems' fortunes have somehow got worse.

The trouble is that, although the Conservatives are in favour, the Lib Dems have traditionally been hostile to nuclear power.

Plenty of Conservative MPs would dispatch the Lib Dems now if they could.

Nelson smirked: "You gotta love these Lib Dems. "

One poll put Labour on only 25%, just three points ahead of the Lib Dems.

Austerity is on the way whoever wins, though both the Tories and the Lib Dems would cut the deficit faster than Labour.

And here, the Lib Dems are influential. Take the government's current dilemma over control orders.

This oddball rabble are five times bigger than the Lib Dems, despite getting only 13 per cent more support.

The Lib Dems could finish first but have the fewest seats.

Perhaps the biggest lesson from the furore is that the Lib Dems are still learning the ropes of government.

A vote for the Lib Dems was once seen as wasted.

So which path should the Lib Dems follow?

The Lib Dems also say they are keen on supply-side reforms.

The better the Lib Dems do in the election, the harder the bargain they can drive over how many cabinet seats they get in a coalition.

They can tolerate self-sacrifice: Lib Dems enjoy the moral high ground.

The Lib Dems think it unfair that they are hated.

Yet, he adds, it will have big consequences if the Lib Dems develop a taste for playing the "nice" party in the coalition.

The problem is that Lib Dems are not enjoying life much.

On becoming deputy prime minister last year, Nick Clegg (above) implored the Lib Dems to "own" everything the coalition did.

Leftish Lib Dems worry about safety and dislike the association with nuclear weapons;