Skipper

Isn't this, despite its cruel depiction of Clegg, a wonderfully witty cartoon? Chris Riddell is far and away the best political cartoonist in the country. It also sums up the awful predicament in which the Lib Dems find themselves. Last Sunday John Major even suggested to Andrew Marr that Tories should not stand against those 'loyal' Coalition Liberal Democrats at the next election. I can't see this happening- the Tories are too ruthless to care much about who they have shafted. [Incidentally I agreed with the current Eye point that David Two Brains Willets, the universities' minister, wrote a praised book called ^The Pinch which argues the baby boomer generation has robbed its progeny of much of its future. And then he goes and hits them with the biggest 'pinch' of the lot: a tripling of tuition fees.]

Rawnsley points out that 27 out of the 34 Lib Dem backbenchers refused to follow Clegg's command, either abstaining or voting against the increases. If this rebellion is repeated on other 'red-line' issues this government will not make it through to next Easter. Rawnsley gets to the nub it of here:

An idea about the coalition is beginning to take hold. This idea will eat away at Nick Clegg's authority over his party and ultimately prove fatal for the coalition if it hardens into a fixed view of how this government works. The idea is that the Lib Dems have become the coalition's fall guys, the hapless human shields for David Cameron and George Osborne, the useful idiots of the Tories.

Poor old Nick has had to be the front man over the toxic fees issue; Cameron has been astonishingly silent while Clegg has twisted in the wind. Few can doubt that so far the Tories have done so much better out of the coalition arrangement then the Liberal Democrats. Conservative poll ratings are bobbing up to an over the 40 mark- several points better than last May- while Clegg's party have had to watch their ratings plunge down to a third of their May level to a mere 8%. And they may slide even lower. Meanwhile Clegg has become prime hate figure for students everywhere. I note one demo placard said of Nick Clegg that he 'puts the 'c' in cuts.' Ouch.